by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
I remember when kart racing games flooded the market, some great as in CTR and Mario Kart and others bad as Smurf Racing and Nicktoon’s Racing.
Well in the 128 bit world there’s very little kart games around now.
Atari has released the first kart racer on X-Box. It’s called Furious Karting, a serious kart game with silly kart game features.
You play as one of several characters who join a team of kart racers and you cooperate with your teammates to win the championship.
Like past kart racers you’ll have weapons and power-ups you can pick up and throw at opponents, but what makes this game different is that your not supposed to hit your teammates.
Throwing at other teams gains you karma points and hitting your own team loses you points.
Plus hitting any drivers makes them mad at you and they will seek revenge. There’s even a button to apologize and sometimes they forgive you.
The tracks are basic kart style tracks, shopping malls, hockey rink, city streets, etc. You upgrade karts and earn new secrets as you play the game.
There’s even background traps or environment changes that can be set off by you hitting a object.
Also new for a kart racer is tricks. Yes you perform stunts to earn points as well. The tricks are sometimes hard to perform and most require ramps, While a fun extra it’s not a necessity in playing the game.
The graphics are only sub par in Furious Karting. The character animations are very bland, they lack a lot of much needed detail.
The sound is acceptable, but nothing exciting. Basic music tracks and characters even get excited when they mess up, They must like the challenge.
The multiplayer is fun, but it would have nice if there was a co-op championship mode and not limited to just 2-4 players.
There also needs to be more multiplayer modes of any kind.
Overall Furious Karting is a good first attempt at bringing back the kart racer.
It’s also great they didn’t licence the game out to Yu-Gi-Oh!, Simpsons or Ninja Turtles. Just a simple kart racer.
If you miss the kart racer, you’ll enjoy Furious Karting it will keep you well entertained until Mario Kart on Gamecube is released.