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It's like Mario Kart. But with real cars.

Blog post done. Sweet!

You're still reading? Ok, I suppose I could say more about it. Sure there are Mario Kart similarities, heck, most of the powerups have direct equivalents to MK items. But since the game has a more realistic look, the powerups have more to do with electricity or technology than mushrooms or stars. But the use of real cars is a really nice touch. I've seen Ford, Dodge, Chevy, BMW, and a few others thrown in. I'm not sure how they get around not showing "damage" on these, but I guess it's mostly done with a health bar, smoke, and a dragging rear bumper than actual scratches and dents. From what I understand, game makers don't usually get to show licensed cars with a banged up frame, the driver's side especially.

The cars have stats that are either drifty or grippy and off-road or racing. The right or wrong car can make a world of difference on some tracks. And that's one of the things that make this game tough. I couldn't find any sort of preview for the tracks, so I mainly just guessed until I'd gotten last place a few times and knew what the course needed. Another thing that makes it tough is that you always start in the back of the pack in career races. You spend the entire time trying to catch the leaders. Then if you somehow manage to get to the front, you frantically try to use powerups defensively to hold onto your lead. Yet another tricky part is that the powerups aren't nearly as helpful as what you'd find in MK. This makes the game more based on skill rather than luck, but it can also suck out quite a bit of the fun if you're continually on the loosing end.

There are some other modes besides racing that give you a bit of variety, but they're tough too, and I didn't think they were as much fun. Believe it or not, I actually played a bit of multiplayer on this one. They have a decent matchmaking system where you're paired up with people that are theoretically as inexperienced as you. I didn't jump into this until after playing quite a bit of the solo career so I knew my way around some of the tracks and powerups, which helped me pwn some n00bs. Well, not really, but I did manage to win one, I think.

After writing all of these negative things, I've just about convinced myself to send it back to GameFly, but I may forge ahead a little bit more. When this game works, it's a lot of fun. I just have to slog through lots of frustrating and confusing stuff to get there. I just went and read Ryan's review and it convinced me to give up on the single player career (it is, as he says "freakin' hard") and stick with the multiplayer. Mostly because it has the Modern Warfare style level up system.

Next up is Little Big Planet 2, which should show up in the mail soon. My wife has been pretty anxious to play this one together. And she doesn't even know about all the crazy new game modes that they're making such a big fuss over. So it should be pretty cool.

UPDATE: After somehow winning 4 in a row on the easy leagues, I got a message from a guy I was racing.

"dude ur rlly good"

My response:

"nah, just played lots of Mario Kart"

Because a lot of the racing is countering others' attacks and MK teaches you that very well.