Hands-On Preview: Why not just call it Mario Kart: Namco Edition?
There seems to be a simple standard when it comes to kart racing games. The game in question either blatantly rips off Mario Kart and all its various sequels or... it sucks. It's a formula that has been pretty reliable since the days that Mario first threw a red shell at Bowser, but as with any rule, there are exceptions. I can't think of any off hand, but I'm sure they're out there. Which brings us to Namco and Pac-Man World Rally, the latest game to take a whack at the kart racing king.
But Namco and Pac-Man World Rally have an ace up their sleeve. A few of you might remember that Nintendo put out an arcade version of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! titled Mario Kart: Arcade GP last year. What you might not know is that Arcade GP was developed by Namco and featured Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Blinky as playable characters. So it should come as no surprise that Pac-Man World Rally is more than a Mario Kart rip-off. It feels like an exact duplicate of the game with Namco characters pulling grand theft auto on Mario's karts.
I had a chance to play a little of Pac-Man World Rally and the similarities between the two games will smack you in the face as soon as you press Start. The two tracks I was able to try were the Arctic Iceberg and the Haunted Mansion, neither of which would be out of place in MK. Three characters were playable (Pac-Man, Blinky and Pooka [the goggled guy from Dig-Dug]), but at this stage in the development they all felt rather similar. Although screenshots show that (like Mario Kart) a character's weight and the player's choice of kart will make each racer feel different.
So I picked my racer after I got the green I began chugging around the track. The controls are identical to MK. Gas, brake, R1 to jump and L1 to use an item. Also like MK, if hold a jump into a turn you can powerslide by moving the stick back and forth. This creates yellow, red and green sparks to let you know you're doing it correctly. Sadly, the powersliding here feels a little less precise than it does in MK. Driving as a whole felt pretty tight, but I rarely tried to powerslide because it was so unpredictable to figure which direction you'd end up facing when you came out of it.
Now tell me if this sounds familiar at all. Floating all over the tracks are little blue item boxes. These item boxes give out a variety of items including little green bombs with legs that run behind you until you fire them at other racers. If you miss they'll bounce off the walls until they hit someone. Did I mention they're green? On the other hand, after you unleash a red bomb with legs, it will target the racer in front of you and smash them good. And a blue bomb guy will chase after the racer in first place. Green and red bomb guys can be collected in packs of one or three.
Other items include snowmen that can be placed on the track and, when hit, turn your opponents into ice cubes. And did I mention the fake item boxes and speed bursts (also available in packs of one or three)? So needless to say, if you know how to use the weapons in Mario Kart, you'll know what to do here.
It should be noted that not every part of World Rally was based in some way on Mario Kart. A few Pac-Man traditions have worked their way into the game as well. In addition to item boxes, Power Pellets are also scattered all over the tracks. Collecting these pellets (which produces the excellent wokka-wokka-wokka sound) will fill a Pellet Meter. When this meter is full you can hit Triangle and turn into the Pac-Tank to eat your opponents while they eat your dust. You'll also find fruit on the field, which can be used to open various shortcuts on the tracks, some of which are more obvious than others. Finally, Pac-Man and pals are able to fill a Shield Bar when they powerslide. When it's full, a quick tap of L2 or R2 will create a shield around your kart allowing you to plow through the competition.
The tracks themselves would not look out of place in a future version of Mario Kart and the Arctic Iceberg even has giant penguins sliding along the track trying to block the racers. But the tracks themselves look great and are well designed, so they deserve a pass. And besides, how many different ways can you really make a Haunted Mansion or a snow track? The game also sports four difficulty levels and even at this stage it was easy to tell the differences between each so players of all skill levels will find plenty of challenge.
In addition to to the Circuit Mode, I was also able to try out one arena in Battle Mode. In Battle Mode each racer is given a life bar and a few different game modes to blast the stuffing out of that life bar. The weapons are different (they're all based on fruit and work like guns) but things like Cherry Bombs, Grape Grenades and Pellet Guns feel pretty creative. Sadly, the arena I was given to work with (a desert area called Canyon Crusade) seemed too big for these new weapons. Racers had to right next to each other to get any good shots off and many wrong turns would cause a Wile E. Coyote fall to your death. Oh well, at least the racing was pretty sharp.
Xbox 360 | XBLA
PS3 | PSN
Wii | VC
DS
PSP
iPhone
PS2
PC
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