1Xtreme

The game featured many different sports, including skateboarding, roller blading, street luge and mountain biking. The tracks start at one end of a city, and progress along a linear path to another point of the city. Players kick and punch opponents while trying to obtain cash, attaining first place. The tracks are located in various parts of the world (i.e. including Tahoe and San Francisco).

Video clips of broadcaster Suzy Kolber are displayed after each race, in which she offers words of encouragement or pointed criticism of your performance.

Roughly a year after the game's release, Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that ESPN Extreme Games was the biggest selling Sony-published PlayStation game worldwide.

Reviewing the PlayStation version, Air Hendrix of GamePro said ESPN Extreme Games "doesn't push the limits of 32-bit graphics and gameplay, but it does take you on a thrilling ride." He elaborated that the game suffers from "rocky" scrolling and overly pixelated graphics and has few tracks compared to the similar Road Rash, but that details in the graphics "keep the action realistic" and the racing is sufficiently intense. Maximum gave it four out of five stars, remarking that "being able to kick the stuffing out of anyone who dares to try and pass you (especially those racing bikes) makes it a wholly fulfilling experience." They also praised the texture mapping and graphical details, though they criticized the small number of tracks and said the game does not measure up to Ridge Racer or Wipeout, both already released on the PlayStation.