original "review":
One of my childhood games, I remember it being fun but surprisingly difficult.
new review:
Continuing the tradition of revisiting my childhood games but on different platforms (a PS1 version for this one). I thought the game was decently fun, though the difficulty feels inconsistent. Sometimes you can have a win for free, and sometimes you get wrecked, mostly in levels with tight turns. I had a feeling that this game had a Crash Team Racing-like mechanic of slide boosting, because, c'mon, some of these turns are ridiculous, and only when I got to the Jungle Cruise I realized that R1 isn't a simple jump button, but is used exactly for that, power slide. That does make the races a little bit easier. No surprise I found this game difficult as a youngster, I probably didn't know about this boost mechanic. Another important thing for victory is knowing the shortcuts, which I remembered most of. With that, the game isn't very difficult to beat the first time, you'll probably have to restart the races a few times because the AI can be quite ruthless, but it's pretty manageable. On the positive there doesn't seem to be any rubber banding, if you get far enough ahead, other racers won't suddenly speed up to catch up. I repaired the machine in about 3 and a half hours. Of course you can play the races again for cups and other goodies for 100% completion, which I'd imagine are more difficult to obtain, but I'm focusing this review on the any% completion. Besides the races there are these little challenge stages where you have to find 30 coins in a time limit, and these are basically like small open worlds where you have to get these things. These aren't very difficult either.
The settings for race tracks are varied and imaginative because they're based on the attactions at Walt Disney World. I think. A small touch I like is that in every track you're riding a different vehicle, in the first level (Big Thunder Mountain) you're riding little trains (or I think they're like trains) for example, and boats in Pirates of the Caribbean level, which is fitting.
There are some things that I don't like however. The rings that you race through and unlock a shortcut aren't consistent, I swear sometimes I race through all of them and the shortcut doesn't open. Perhaps it's a power-up hitting me that resets the ring progress but that feels unfair since other opponents can race through these shortcuts as well. Exclusive to this PS1 version (well I assume it isn't much worse in a Dreamcast version) is some abysmal lag. Now I'm not a framerate snob, while the framerate isn't very consistent the game is very much playable, however I still aknowledge that the inconsistent framerate is there, and sometimes it can get pretty low (most noticeably during water races), and some other players may be put off by this.
But overall I think this is a fine racing game. Sure it might be just another Crash Team Racing clone, but the formula works and I enjoyed the game a decent amount.
One of my childhood games, I remember it being fun but surprisingly difficult.
new review:
Continuing the tradition of revisiting my childhood games but on different platforms (a PS1 version for this one). I thought the game was decently fun, though the difficulty feels inconsistent. Sometimes you can have a win for free, and sometimes you get wrecked, mostly in levels with tight turns. I had a feeling that this game had a Crash Team Racing-like mechanic of slide boosting, because, c'mon, some of these turns are ridiculous, and only when I got to the Jungle Cruise I realized that R1 isn't a simple jump button, but is used exactly for that, power slide. That does make the races a little bit easier. No surprise I found this game difficult as a youngster, I probably didn't know about this boost mechanic. Another important thing for victory is knowing the shortcuts, which I remembered most of. With that, the game isn't very difficult to beat the first time, you'll probably have to restart the races a few times because the AI can be quite ruthless, but it's pretty manageable. On the positive there doesn't seem to be any rubber banding, if you get far enough ahead, other racers won't suddenly speed up to catch up. I repaired the machine in about 3 and a half hours. Of course you can play the races again for cups and other goodies for 100% completion, which I'd imagine are more difficult to obtain, but I'm focusing this review on the any% completion. Besides the races there are these little challenge stages where you have to find 30 coins in a time limit, and these are basically like small open worlds where you have to get these things. These aren't very difficult either.
The settings for race tracks are varied and imaginative because they're based on the attactions at Walt Disney World. I think. A small touch I like is that in every track you're riding a different vehicle, in the first level (Big Thunder Mountain) you're riding little trains (or I think they're like trains) for example, and boats in Pirates of the Caribbean level, which is fitting.
There are some things that I don't like however. The rings that you race through and unlock a shortcut aren't consistent, I swear sometimes I race through all of them and the shortcut doesn't open. Perhaps it's a power-up hitting me that resets the ring progress but that feels unfair since other opponents can race through these shortcuts as well. Exclusive to this PS1 version (well I assume it isn't much worse in a Dreamcast version) is some abysmal lag. Now I'm not a framerate snob, while the framerate isn't very consistent the game is very much playable, however I still aknowledge that the inconsistent framerate is there, and sometimes it can get pretty low (most noticeably during water races), and some other players may be put off by this.
But overall I think this is a fine racing game. Sure it might be just another Crash Team Racing clone, but the formula works and I enjoyed the game a decent amount.
NutHut
2 years ago