Midnight Club II (Video Game 2003)

Midnight Club II is the first sequel to Midnight Club: Street Racing, published for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. Players race through cities inspired by Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo. The game also features an online multiplayer component.

Cities
Dry, hilly suburbs and congested interstates can be found throughout Los Angeles, and just like Midnight Club: Street Racing, the city contains many landmarks, as well as numerous shortcuts and jumps. Paris is the home to cobblestone alleyways, monumental roundabouts, and the Paris Catacombs. Also featured are a lot of jumps taking you across the river of Paris and into an alleyway. Tokyo is a city of neon-glittering avenues and tight alleyways, and contains an equal array of tourist sights and attractions.

Gameplay
Races consist of a series of checkpoints, represented by columns of light. In some races, the order in which the checkpoints must be cleared is prescribed. In this case, a transparent, glowing arrow points to the next checkpoint. In other races the checkpoints may be cleared in any order. In that case, the arrow points to the nearest checkpoint. It is up to the player which route to take from one checkpoint to the next. There are no artificial barriers in the game's open world environment that force the player to stay on a specific course. Any area that is drivable or jumpable in the free-roaming cruise mode between races may be used to get to the next checkpoint.

Some areas can be driven upon that are not intended for such use outside of a computer game. Examples are escalators, roofs, railways and riverbeds and many ramps. However, many areas that would be drivable in reality, for example entrances and some stairs, are fenced off with invisible barriers. In some areas, the player can jump or drop down. Using this to the player's advantage can be necessary in order to win a race. If the car falls into deep water, the damage meter goes to its maximum stage and the car starts to overheat and the race is immediately lost.

The game features a damage model. The amount of damage inflicted upon a car is indicated by both an HUD indicator and visual damage to the car. The performance of a car does not degrade with damage. When the damage limit of a car is exceeded, the car explodes or stalls. After a delay of a few seconds, the player can continue with a new car.

Cars
The vehicles in Midnight Club II all resemble real life vehicles but have subtle differences to their counterparts, such as different headlamps or taillights. Also, most of them have aesthetic modifications commonly found in the street racing and import scenes, e.g. spoilers and body kits.

In the car selection menu, descriptions and stats of each vehicle can be seen, along with the option to choose among four colors. Once a car is viewed a sound effect is played in the background, which is unique to each one of them.

The SLF450X is the only original vehicle in the game. Although no stats are seen of this vehicle, practical exercises show it has the highest performance capability of all of the vehicles. It is capable of reaching 249 mph (402 km/h) without nitrous.

Since the game is not capable of replicating AWD vehicles, they are only available with RWD or FWD setups. An example of this is the Knight (based on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, with an AWD system in real-life), which only has the power driven to the front wheels. Moreover, the Stadt has a FWD setup instead of the MR layout of the real-life Renault Clio V6 that it is based on. The reason for this is that FWD cars usually offer a more stable driving in-game with few risks to spin out, and thus its description available in the menu states that it has formidable handling.

Characters
Each character will cruise around the city waiting for a challenge. This excludes Moses, who begins the Career Mode, and the four champions who will seek the player out after all predecessors are beaten. They will talk to the player or 'think loudly' during pre-race cutscenes during which the player can discover their motives, learn statistics of their vehicle, and preview their theme song.

Soundtrack

 * 8-Off Agallah - Midnight Club Theme
 * 8-Off Agallah & Ike Eyes - Ride Out
 * ACM - Elements of Trance (Dj Kim's Reload Mix)
 * ACM - Elements of Trance
 * Alpine Stars - Jump Jet
 * Antenna - Round About Midnight
 * Art of Trance - Blue Owl
 * Art of Trance - Stealth
 * A:xus - When I Fall in Love
 * Bipath - Paranoize
 * Blu Warta - Midnight Club 2
 * Blumarten - Home Videos
 * Blumarten - Simon and Lisa
 * D-Noiser - Brain 26 Questions (Non-Vocal Mix)
 * D-Noiser - Brain 29 Demon of the Church
 * D-Noiser - Brain 30 Brain Train Psycho (tb 303 Mix)
 * Felix da Housecat - Sequel2sub
 * Felix da Housecat - Silver Screen (Shower Scene)
 * Golden Boy with Miss Kittin - It's Good for you to Meet People Like Us
 * Golden Boy with Miss Kittin - Nix
 * Jack Henderson - Syntrax
 * Kansai - Rococco
 * Kinnder - Space Station
 * Michael da Brain - Brain 21 Something for your Mind (Kaylab Remix)
 * Michael da Brain - Brain 35 Only an Illusion
 * Mistress Barbara vs. Barbara Brown - Never Could I Have Your Heart
 * Moogroove - Mirage
 * Nokternal - Aurora
 * Patientzero - Live 135
 * Projections - Escaping São Paulo
 * Robert & Martinez Bros - Electrified
 * Subtech - Timeshift
 * Thomas Bangalter - Extra Dry
 * Thomas Bangalter - Outrun
 * Thomas Bangalter - Turbo
 * Tommy Tee feat. Masta Ace - What is It
 * Tony Touch - G'z Up
 * Tre Little - Let's Go
 * Tre Little - Put your Top Down

Trivia

 * This second installment of the series brought controversy for using many derogatory racial stereotypes for the racers in the game. The same effect also happened to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, another Rockstar Games title.
 * Cheat codes were also usable in multiplayer, hindering the fairness of gameplay.
 * Much like the first game, there is no customization, since the cars are already modified to battle against the bosses.
 * There is an ability to quickly change the online user name, thus being able to join in and sabotage a race, and not being able to ban the user for his or her activities.
 * The maximum speed in the game is 249 mph (401 km/h), even with nitrous.
 * This is the only game in the series to be released for Microsoft Windows.
 * Midnight Club II is the second installment of the series to first introduce a police helicopter (only to be seen chasing the player and other racers in certain races) in Career Mode.
 * The song "Tony Touch - G'z Up" is the only song not playable in Quick Race (Confirmed on PC port)

Sound Effects Used

 * Anime Ambulance Siren Sound
 * Hollywoodedge, Car Horn Honk Close Me CT052201 or Hollywoodedge, Car Horn Honk Medium PE077001
 * Hollywoodedge, Gto Mix Revs Peel Out PE074101‎
 * Hollywoodedge, Dogs Three Barks Howl PE023901
 * Hollywoodedge, Doppler Car Horn By Ap PE077401
 * Hollywoodedge, Doppler Horn By LeftT PE079801
 * Hollywoodedge, Crash Metal Shatter PE110201 (Heard in high pitch.)
 * Hollywoodedge, Crash Metal Glass PE110801
 * Hollywoodedge, Car Crash Small 1 Shor PE111901
 * Hollywoodedge, Dry Skids Long Squeal PE297001
 * Hollywoodedge, High Low Siren Close PE081301
 * Sound Ideas, EXPLOSION - LARGE EXPLOSION 10
 * Sound Ideas, STEREO, TURNTABLE - NEEDLE SCRATCHING RECORD, RECORD PLAYER 02
 * SKYWALKER, METAL - WEIRD CLANK
 * SKYWALKER, SCI FI GUN - AT-AT GUN
 * SKYWALKER, SCI-FI GUN - CHEWIE'S BOWCASTER GUN
 * SKYWALKER, SCI-FI GUN - ION CANNON GUN
 * SKYWALKER, SCI-FI GUN - TIE FIGHTER GUN
 * SKYWALKER, SCI-FI GUN - X-WING FIGHTER GUN
 * SKYWALKER LASER BLAST SOUND (Used when Moses blasts the cop cars away with lasers)
 * SKYWALKER LIGHTSABER SOUND
 * SKYWALKER, SPACECRAFT - MILLENNIUM FALCON FLY BY 01
 * SKYWALKER, SPACECRAFT - MILLENNIUM FALCON FLY BY 02
 * SKYWALKER, SPACECRAFT - MILLENNIUM FALCON FLY BY 03
 * SKYWALKER, SPACECRAFT - TIE FIGHTER ROAR BY 02 (Used for the Los Angeles Police Department cop cars)
 * SKYWALKER, WHOOSH - SYNTHESIZED JET FLY BY
 * Sound Ideas, SCI FI - JETSONS SPACE CAPSULE: PASS BY, 01
 * Sound Ideas, SCI FI - JETSONS SPACE CAPSULE: PASS BY, 02
 * Sound Ideas, TEETH, CARTOON - SCOOBY'S TEETH CHATTER, LONG

Follows
Midnight Club: Street Racing (2000) (Video Game)

Followed by
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition (2005) (Video Game)

Midnight Club: Los Angeles (2008) (Video Game)

Referenced in
The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002) A poster for The Powerpuff Girls Saving the Day spoofing the cover of Midnight Club II can be seen on the streets of Townsville.

Evil Con Carne (2003) (TV Series) In every episode, Hector tells Boskov about their game's title with racing and customized while take over the world.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) There's a poster for the game on the wall of the store's break room.

Featured in
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) The clips from the movie is used on the top secret TV screen.

Troldspejlet: Episode #30.2 (2003) (TV Episode) PC version reviewed + footage used

Spoofs
Stalag 17 (1953)

Break to Freedom (1953)

The Dam Busters (1955)

A Town Like Alice (1956)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The Great Escape (1963) Poster is spoofed the movie is seen.

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) (TV Series) LA Cop uses the Vulcan hand and says "Farewell!".

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Luke Skywalker is mentioned. Savo quotes the line "I have a bad feeling about this." Primo is looking at the Stormtrooper costume at the store. Gina wears Princess Leia's buns. Moses pulls out a lightsaber and ignites it, just as Luke Skywalker did. X-wings, TIE fighters, Luke's landspeeder, Millennium Falcon and Y-wing are shown in the game. The line "Look at the size of that thing" is also quoted.

Sesame Street (1969) (TV Series) Savo knocks over some barrels and ran over some cop cars, cameo appearance.

The Brady Bunch (1969) (TV Series) In the level "First Race in Hollywood", there is the title for Midnight Club II parodying the show's intro sequence.

The Godfather (1972) Primo accidentally crashes his rocket into a buidling, flies over a bridge and crashes into a brick wall.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Victory (1981)

Tenko (1981) (TV Series)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Back to the Future (1985) Hector gets into the 1971 Bestia, which turns into a Delorean from this film. The DeLorean reaches 88mph and disappears to time travel, leaves fire trails behind and the license plate ("OUTATIME") spins around and lands on the ground, in the same way (also the same design) as in Back to the Future (1985), when Doc Brown sends Einstein one minute into the future in the World's first temporal displacement.

Aliens (1986)

Memphis Belle (1990)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Mentioned in dialogue.

Wong Fei Hung (1991)

Silent Cries (1993)

Politically Incorrect (1993) (TV Series) footage used on TV store.

True Lies (1994)

Clerks (1994) Poster is seen in a Paris movie theatre.

Batman Forever (1995) The rocket flames in the back of LA Cop's car is the same as the Batmobile in this movie.

Paradise Road (1997)

Staring at Headlights (1999)