Review: MGS Karting
Score:
90%
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
Introduction
So here it is, the peak of Gaming on the 92x0, the best game graphics, gameplay combined with nice sounds! Is it really? From the 'simple' SilverBall to Karting, MGS have come a long way. I've been there every step to be the first to congratulate them, because never have they sold out on graphics and sound on behalf of the limited specs of our beloved machines. As Steel Warrior set the stage for fast 3D graphics combined with sound, MGS Karting now brakes through the barrier of limitation and brings pc gaming to the 9210 by giving the graphics, sound and gameplay we didn't dare to expect. Day after day I watched their website, will we finally have a racing game on the 92x0?
(sorry v-Rally isn't what I call racing)
Friendly Bing Bing...
Story continues
Gimme,gimme, gimme ....
Replaced my MobileGameStation with the 1.9 version, continued with MGS Karitng and off I went.
And then it hit! Black screen, Loading ..., "MGS with a loading screen ?, mmms things could prove interesting, little did I know ..."
After a few sec's of waiting (I'm sure they just implemented this to increase the suspense :D ) the main menu popped up joined by Bing Bing the Panda with a huge "Thank you" sign, well if they want to thank me for having a great time!
By now you will see why I'm so enthusiastic, the main menu floats above a moving background, a nice touch I might say.
Couldn't enjoy it long though, my fingers had already moved to the quick race button and called up the next loading screen.
Eye for detail, even the options look good ;)
Me racing ...
WHERE THE HELL DID THAT TREE COME FROM?
When selecting quick race MGS Karting chooses a pilot and kart for you and starts a random Extreme Race.
The camera flies you right behind your player and the countdown commences, hey man get those fingers in gaming positions! and don't forget to reserve a finger for that ctrl key, it just might become your personal missile launcher :D
First thing you'll notice while racing is that you have the throttle to accelerate, which works out great because you won't need to focus on pressing 'forward/up' all the time.
First time you press 'forward/up' you'll accelerate to half of your top speed which will be around 40mph, hitting it again will get you at max cruising speed.
Braking works the same way, press once to go to half speed and again to stop and a last third press will put you in reverse :)
All nice and fun, but somehow I met up with every single obstacle next to every curve, any treehuggers reading?
BTW people who ever played Mario Kart or Wacky Wheels should now be filled with lovely warm nostalgic feelings :p
No1, now that would have been more like it! :D
Me myself and the big panda named Bing Bing
Kind of embarrassed with finishing 7th from the 8 contenders I decided to start a normal Extreme Race (which enables me to choose a character and kart).
First I had to choose a Kart, I went for the purple one since the speed, acceleration, turning and braking statistics showed it to be a sporty Kart witch I hope had better turning abilities :D
The most basic Kart, good for training
My carriage to victory (OK the Handeling isn't the best but combined with Bing Bing it works out just fine ;) )
Next in the character selection my eye fell on the big Panda (Bing Bing) who with his weight probably should be able to take corners a bit better in my upcoming race.
When moving through the characters you'll see the specific qualities of the character; strength, luck, power and weight.
Bing Bing!!
I like to use this one with the red Kart
Left, right, no left! *sigh* where is that copilot?
Being able to follow the road this time, I took some time to concentrate on the indicators next to the screen.
On the left side we get a nice indication where we and the rest of the characters are at the current map, which will help you decide when to nuke their arses, the blinking cross on the map will indicate the next checkpoint, which will help you to find those handy shortcuts ;)
Also on the left side you'll see your collected power-up with on it's right a event log which holds all attacks.
If someone fires a missile you'll see this as an attack in the event log.
Not only the map will guide you through the course, an indicator will appear above your character when a curve arrives.
After a few races you might realise that your ability to take corners successfully will have a great impact on the outcome of a race.
The selection of a good character combined with a Kart will help you a lot but if not you could try one of these tips; when entering a turn you could toggle quickly between brake and accelerate (one press brake, one press accelerate) which should give you a bit more stability, also try to use the surrounding terrain to slow you down and guide you through a U-turn for instance.
Suprise suprise, what's behind 'strange yellow floating ball' No.1 ;)
One MultiMissilePack please
The difference between the extreme and the normal time race is the use of weapons to determine the outcome of a race.
At one time you can only have 1 weapon/power-up, you can collect those power-ups by driving through yellow balls with a question mark on them.
Now you'll find that a character with more 'luck' will get better power-ups, while someone with no luck like the Indian will only get a banana to annoy people.
The power-ups are in order of effectiveness:
May God have mercy on their souls! (firing red multi missile)
The super Noumena Power up which will grant you invincibility, super speed and a steel ball floating around you to make sure that no one gets too close.
The Green Multi Missile Pack looks like 3 missiles with a green head, when you fire this it every opponent will have to face the shrinking power and will have to continue at half or their max speed for some time. Very handy!
Red Multi Missile Pack will slow down your opponents by making them stop rather violently :D
Green Missile does the same as the green missiles in the multi pack above but only affects your closest opponent.
Red Missile ... :D
Firing a single red missile after being hit with a green one myself ...
Floating steel ball a nice little gadget that flies around you to knock your opponents silly when they come to close for your (their) comfort.
Battery will provide you with a speed power up what could be handy in those last metres/inches before the finish.
Last and certainly least the Banana! with it's awesome slivering power it will annoy your opponents (or even yourself :D) when they drive over it.
Easy track
Right turn by the Eiffel tower and a left at the Golden gate bridge
The tracks themselves are big, beautiful and diverse just how I like them ;)
The best thing about the maps is that we have the possibility to drive wherever we want which gives us the chance to take some shortcuts which of course could be very handy ;) Just beware that you don't take a too big of a shortcut because the surrounding terrain makes you go so slow that the effect of some shortcuts can be lost.
Like mentioned above stay a way from trees and rocks when going offroad ;)
Hard track made easy with a nifty shortcut :D
Quoting James Hetfield when screaming "Better than you!!!" (Metallica - ReLoad track 5)
You've got 6 tournaments, 3 Extreme tournaments and 3 time attack tournaments.
The catch in racing in tournaments instead of single races is that you can only select your character and Kart once, which has a serious effect on the outcome of the races.
One track will require you to fly like a jet and the other to turn like a helicopter, so you'll have to make a choice, lose a few win the rest or go for the path between and try to keep your place in the top 3 list.
Cup selection
MobileGameStation 1.9
With MGS Karting a new version of the MGS launcher has arrived. One of the improvements is the use of the keyboard to launch a game. While in the previous versions you had to move to CBA 1 (CBA=control button area, that space on the right of your screen which holds 4 buttons) now you can use 'enter' to start a game.
This also works in MGS Karting :) So from now on instead of using the CBA 1 you can press space to start racing! :)
But beware when you hit space after seeing race results in a tournament! While displaying your score after the race CBA1 will state "quit" and CBA4 "ok", this means that pressing the normal space button will throw you back to the main menu instead of continuing the race.
If you need to scratch :D
Is it that Brilliant?
Well I had to dig to find some errors but here we go ;)
When you start a race the position indicator won't display the correct number, once it happened to me that after a stunning passing manoeuvre my counter went to 8/8 instead of the 1/8 what really sucked :D But don't worry only happened once so don't be afraid to overtake some slow buggers ;)
The San Francisco look alike map called "Lucky bay" has one checkpoint that doesn't work, maybe you could take advantage of this, with a nifty shortcut ;)
When filling in your name for a new best time record you'll have to type blind since the typing field is in the middle and the text in on the left side of the screen and doesn't update when you type ... But it works, so just hit backspace a while before you type ;)
veni, vidi, vici ;)
Conclusion
If you ask me this game is Brilliant, it seems that I say the exact same thing in every MGS conclusion but I can't help it ...
This game makes my 92x0 a full gaming station, I now can race as I would on my old PC's without giving up any graphics or sound quality.
I can't wait to see what there is next, an offroader? A bike game?
Maybe a more advanced SteelWarrior?
I've always been a fan of GFX, my endless efforts to skin my 92x0 to the max, creating the best vids for my 92x0, boosting up its memory, I want to extend it to its limits, and now MGS Karting has once again given proof that the 92x0 limits still aren't reached!!!!!!
If nothing more then at least let MGS Karting be a influence for other game developers! We don't want little Java things like V-Rally or GT Racing but give us MGS Karting, Rayman, Civilisation, Interstellar Flames, Strategic Assault ...
So just go and try this game out!
BTW if any developer is reading, simcity or c&c on the 92x0 would be great ;))
Reviewed by Dazler Dazler at