Gaming off the Beaten Path

  It's time to go back to the "racing games based on motorsports I know absolutely nothing about" well once again. This time, we're stepping out of our stock cars and hopping on our dirt bikes. I talked in the NASCAR '99 review about how little I knew of stock car racing. Well, if I know very little about NASCAR, I know next to nothing at all about motocross. Should I be capitalizing motocross? Is it a proper noun? I know that it's essentially racing on dirt bikes, but I don't know any of the rules. I couldn't tell you what the big events are or where the top venues are or who the top riders are. I've heard of Ricky Carmichael, but he was the only member of this game's roster I had recognized. So basically, I am going into this blind, at least when it comes to how the subject matter is presented. That said, I've played a lot of racing games over the past three years, probably more than I had in my entire life, so I'm starting to learn ...

It seems like every gaming IP from the late 90's/early 00's ended up with a kart racer. Even some non-gaming IPs got kart racers. Anybody remember Homie Rollerz? Maybe I'll play that one later. I guess you can thank Mario Kart for all of that. I mean, hey, it worked for Nintendo, why wouldn't it work for everyone else? Because all developers take the time and care in creating their spinoffs as Nintendo while also having a similarly large cast of memorable characters to pull from, right? Yeah, a lot of these racers turn out to be not great, they're kind of like movie licensed games that are cranked out just to to make a quick buck. And it's not just second rate developers that are guilty either. Sega has since redeemed themselves, but Sonic R wasn't a very good game at all. That said, not every kart racer is a bad Mario Kart clone. Crash Team Racing is a very good game, one I'll likely review in the near future. Even though one turned out well and the oth...

 I can't believe it's taken so long. I've covered such a wide range of games and touched so many different franchises over the past two plus years. My reviews have spanned a wide range of IPs, from popular to obscure. I've covered series' I'm passionate about, ambivalent towards and even ones I dislike. And yet, this is the first time I've ever touched "The Simpsons." I've talked at length about how video game series' like Final Fantasy and Mega Man have impacted my life. But I'm not sure any media franchise has made the impact on me The Simpsons have. Anyone who knows me knows The Simpsons are kind of my thing. Those other franchises may define my taste in media. But the Simpsons have defined pretty much my entire personality, much to the chagrin of some. Oh what, you thought I was personable or I had a good sense of humor? Not really, pretty much anything I've ever said that made someone laugh is just a recycled Simpsons joke or r...

Looks like it’s back to license games yet again. I think it’s worth reiterating that not all licensed games are bad.   I mean, last week’s 10’s game was technically licensed.    So are just about all sports games.   But you know that I know that you know those aren’t the kind of games I’m talking about.   I’m talking about stuff like “The Golden Compass” or “Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game.”   And yet as strange as the latter was, this week’s entry may be even more bizarre. Some of you might remember Antz, DreamWorks’ first digitally animated feature.   Released in 1998, it received solid reviews and performed okay at the box office.   It had quite the star-studded voice cast too, with Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, J-Lo, Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stalone, Danny Glover and Gene Hackman.   It also massively pissed off Pixar, who accused it of ripping off their follow-up to Toy Story, “A Bug’s Life,” which would hit theatres o...

Oh great, another racing game.  By now you all know exactly how this is going to go.  At this point I think I’ve made it clear that I don’t like racing games, I hate driving, they usually don’t appeal to me, etc. etc.  This is just going to be more of the same, right? Not so fast.  This futuristic racer isn’t like the “realistic” racing games I covered before, nor is it a random entry in a series that has nothing else to do with racing.  F-Zero GX, released for the GameCube in 2003, is an absolutely phenomenal game from what many consider to be Nintendo’s forgotten first party franchise. Most gamers know series protagonist Captain Falcon from Super Smash Bros., but F-Zero has had little love thrown its way by the big N other than a few references in that series.  How little love?  This week’s game was the last one released on a non handheld console in the United States.  Remember, this came out in 2003, which was 17 years and almost three consol...

Oh great, another racing game.   Look, I think I’ve made it pretty clear I don’t really like these things, but they don’t take too much time to play or review.  This one isn’t even that obscure, a lot of folks that played video games in those days have heard of it and its even part of the Nintendo World Championship cartridge.  It wasn’t quite mainstream, but not really off the path either. I do talk a lot on here about “the name in the corner” with games.  Games are frequently under- or overrated because of who developed or published them, probably more so than any other type of media.  It was true then and it it still true now, even though there are far fewer developers (if you aren’t counting indie developers, of course) than there used to be.  Most of the ones that were around in those days were very specialized and known for making games in only one or two genres. And that’s what makes Rad Racer weird.  You m...

Mega Man Battle and Chase I wasn’t going to continue with the Mega Man games, but I just had to write about this one.   Who knew there existed a Mega Man kart racer?  I sure as hell didn’t.  After the last two weeks, I decided to fire up Mega Man X legacy collection, as I wanted to play through X3.  Upon finishing it, I accidentally unlocked Battle and Chase without realizing I had done so. Apparently it was released in Japan and Europe for the PS1, but never made it to the U.S. That usually means one  or more of the following: It completely sucked OR was absolutely incredible It’s overflowing with Japanese cultural references that wouldn’t translate It’s rrrreaaaaaaallllllly hard Yet none of those things are true here.  It’s an okay game filled with familiar Mega Man characters that’s a little too easy for its own good.  Battle and Chase is fun, but its very flawed and kind of simplistic.  There are some real...