Atari Karts
Atari Karts
Format: Cart Size: 2MB
Genre: Go-kart racing
Players: 1-2
Tracks: A lot
MSRB Rating: K-A
YOR: 1995
Atari Karts is the Jaguar's slick go-kart racing game. While it is a clone form the Mario Kart genre, it's not Mario Karts. One thing to remember is that both games were made by the same developer.

Atari Karts starts up with a great title track tune that's hard to describe. I'm not sure of what style it's called, but it's cool. You have 4 different difficulties to chose from, from Beginner to Jaguar Aces. You have eight different characters to chose from at the first of the game, and you can obtain hidden characters later on. These hidden characters are pretty cool, especially Firebug and Miracle Man. The screen that you select you characters is pretty cool to, showing your racer in spinning around 360° creating a 3D look to you racer. Same thing is used in the game(they are actually sprites).

After you chose your racer, you can chose from three different cups. Each cup has several different tracks on it. Some tracks are a little longer than others, but all aren't that long.

The graphics are cool. The game moves at a fluid 60fps all the time. The tracks are high-res, MIP-Mapped I think, and they move around smoothly. The backgrounds are sweet, and have at least three layers of parallax scrolling. Some have 4 or 5. The characters are cartoonish looking and animate real well to. My favorite looking track is the beach one, it just looks really cool, and animates as well.

Sound is great also. The tunes are hard to describe without hearing them. Maybe a soft techno-ish style. I really like them though. Sounds are OK, nothing specatular.

As for gameplay, it's definently not lacking. This is definently a racing game, not some mutalation with battle modes and everything. A couple of people who played this game whined about the lack of those, but I explained to them, sometimes you need solid racing games. It's not like you can't affect the other player though. You can get power-ups to reverse his controls. This really can piss them off if they're not experienced with the game. There are other things as well, such as turtles(slow you down), rabbits(speed you up), wheels(all-terrain driving), steering wheels(improves your controls), and a couple other goodies.

All-in-all, Atari Karts is a great racing game, one of the best on the Jag IMHO. If you can manage to find one, pick it up, you won't be disappointed.
Ratings:

Graphics= A- = Has awesome scaling effects, great animation, parallax scrolling, and a 60fps rate. Not to be missed for these things alone.

Music/Sound= B+! = I love the music on this game. Crystal clear tunes, long as well. Sounds are nice, done in stereo, sound clear as well.

Control= A = For the first couple of times you play they maybe a little different, but after that you can play like a pro. I like the use of the 4 and 6 buttons for sharp turns(another reason to get a Pro-controller)

Fun Factor= A+ = This is a great game to play, with a high replay value. Everyone that I've seen play it has enjoyed it. You will think so too...

By Adam Pratt 1