![]() The depth of character customization threw me off: I hadn't expected this level of effort from what surely had to be a mediocre licensed spinoff game for some giant soulless franchise. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. The first few races were play were rather uneventful, as we were playing on 50cc in order to get a handle on things. But once we bumped the speed up to 100cc we slowly began to realize that the people who made Garfield Kart seriously knew what they were doing. The drift physics are immaculate, and allow for a great deal of control, while also rewarding the player with multiple tiers of boost for drifting long enough. Simultaneously, the tracks perfectly accommodate for the extra speed achieved from drift boosting, meaning that, if you know what you're doing, you can be in a constant cycle of drifting and boosting for an entire race. This gameplay loop of drift and boost is the core of Garfield Kart, and it is near-perfectly executed.Īnother thing to talk about is the map selection in this game. The maps are divided into four sets of four: the Lasagna Cup, which offers beginner maps, the Pizza Cup, which offers beginner-to-intermediate maps, the Hamburger Cup, which offers intermediate-to-difficult maps, and the Ice Cream Cup, which offers difficult-to-extreme maps. Almost every map offers its own unique atmosphere and driving feel. I could go on about almost every map in the game, but for the sake of brevity I'll merely discuss my favorites. It’s a neat way of causing problems for the lead player without condemning them to a certain hit.Sneak-a-Peak, while certainly derivative of Mario Kart's DK Jungle, is still highly notable for its great atmosphere, slalom turns, and difficult yet highly rewarding alterative routes and skips. But if they manage to pass through the green one, they can keep going. If the racer hits a red beam, they’re pulled into the air and lose time. They hover ahead of the course and cycle between red and green beams. When a player activates the UFO bonus, it sends three flying saucers ahead of the first-place racer. Garfield Kart‘s lead-killer item works differently. They only appear for competitors in the lower ranks, and only target the lead player, meaning they’re almost always solely a spoiler tactic. No Blue Shellsīlue Shells are a menace in Mario Kart. Hitting another racer with the wand swaps your positions in a kind of slingshot effect, pulling them backwards while launching you forward. The Magic Wand, however, combines these two roles. Most items in kart racers serve one of two functions: strengthening your position or weakening your enemy’s. Paradise Hills is The Stepford Wives Meets Jupiter Ascending. ![]() With Onward, Pixar Is Still Stuck in the Suburbs.But they give you options for customizing your play style beyond the simple acceleration-top speed-handling stat trio, and you still have to get the item for the hat to come into play. If you looked really closely, they’re probably unbalanced, with some clear winners and losers. Hats provide item-specific bonuses, with each increasing the effect of one specific pickup. Garfield Kart has karts, spoilers, and hats. Mario Kart has karts, gliders, and wheels. But it can also be dropped behind you to create a hazard, providing tactical flexibility in the middle of a race. At first glance, the Spring appears to be functionally identical to Mario Kart‘s feather, sending your racer into the air to dodge obstacles and reach new areas. But some items can be used in multiple ways. 1. Multi-Use Itemsįurious Racing has two buttons to deploy items, which it for some reason calls “bonuses.” Like in Mario Kart, items such as pies (the equivalent of green shells) can be fired forward or backward. A number of things about the experience are disturbing: the image of Garfield racing his human owner Jon in a sports car, the fact that none of the characters’ mouths or fingers animate, the presence of “Harry,” who appears to be a kind of Wa-garfield.īut most unsettling of all, in my hour and change spent with the game I realized that Garfield Kart: Furious Racing actually contained a number of good design elements that I haven’t seen in a kart racing game before. As you might expect, the game is a third-rate Mario Kart clone peopled by Garfield and a number of his friends, and featuring items and levels vaguely referencing Garfield’s long history. Last night, in a move I can only describe as “fueled by a deep and all-encompassing self loathing,” I streamed Garfield Kart: Furious Racing.
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