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Playstation > PlayStation Game Cheats > PlayStation Reviews > Staff Review | |
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| Playability: With the popularity of this style of racing apparently growing by leaps and bounds it was only a matter of time before someone got the bright idea of licensing the wonderful world of Disney for a kart title. So…does the magic of Disney work in a kart game? Let's just take a little look-see shall we… Okay, there are a few key components that appear to make up an enjoyable kart racing experience. Number one: You have to have some wacky, recognizable characters to carry the game. Well if Jimminy Cricket, Chip & Dale and a cast of supporting stars isn't enough to float your boat I don't know what is. The cast fits in perfectly with the zany antics involved in the game and of course seem right at home on the courses that they race on…which brings me to key component number 2… You need to have wild creative courses to race on. Luckily gamers will get to race on all of the wild rides that populate Disney World. With tracks like Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean to name a few, you will never be at a loss for original, yet recognizable courses. Just imagine ripping through Space Mountain or the Tomorrowland Speedway and you can start to get the idea of just how much fun these tracks can be. Number three and most important…the core competency of any kart racing game is vehicle control. With all of the items typically found (and collected) over the course of a race, having shitty control will have you throwing your game controller through the television screen in no time flat. Magical Racing Tour for the most part has very good to excellent control but occasional stumbled at some key moments…first the good. The courses for the most part are laid out quite nicely with plenty of room to maneuver and oodles of shortcuts to discover. The karts handle really well on pavement, with the ability to cut right or left in an instant and turbo boost to really zip up those straight-aways. I liked the way the karts felt on dry land and the physics that went into the game. Powerslides are cake to pull off and trying to straighten out your vehicle after sideswiping someone is just plain awesome as your kart screams sideways towards a wall or other obstacle. Unfortunately there are some annoyances and more surprisingly "bugs" that I found while playing through the game. On the annoying side, animated characters are placed at strategic points on a course that are intended to be a distraction…and in that respect they succeed all too well. I can't tell you how many times I was way out in front only to careen out of control and smack into a wall because I was paying attention to some goofy characters waving me over. There were also occasions that I was lured into a corner that I just could not get out of. Occasionally the game would have pity and place me back on the track but other times I would just be stuck there and forced to restart. Another strange event that I experienced was getting totally disoriented and being told that I was going in the wrong direction no matter which way I was going. This happened rarely, but it happened non-the less. The way I "corrected" this problem was to just keep heading in the direction that I thought was correct and eventually the game realized I was going the right way. Of course by then I was hopelessly in last place… Number four: You should have some sort of goal to attain in the game. In the MRT Story Mode the object is to travel throughout Disney World collecting missing pieces of a fireworks machine that Chip & Dale inadvertently scattered about when they were playing with the mechanism (oops). As you beat one track, one or two others open that you must beat in order to continue. Finally we arrive at key component number five: You must have wacky power-ups and Magical Racing Tour succeeds and also slightly fails. The stuff you get to pick up is great and highly useful. There are the weapons like acorns, which you can fire at opponents that are ahead of you. There is a fantastic frog spell that you can cast that will turn the closest player in a frog for a short period of time. Not only is it funny watching an opponent jump around the course, but if you time it just right and can squish the frog into instant roadkill (hehehe). There are also cups the you can litter over the course and when someone runs into them they are plunked into the cup until they crash into a wall or a few seconds expire, whichever comes first. On the offensive side you can pick up turbo boosts, invincibility or a rocket that will turn your vehicle into…well a rocket! The rocket is a mixed blessing though. Use it on a straightaway and your off to the races but hit an obstacles, any obstacle and you explode and are set back in the race a few clicks. Where the power-ups slightly fail is in the fact that there just aren't enough different kinds. Don't get me wrong here, the power-ups are creative and work great but a couple more different items would have been even better. Okay, we've covered the key components, now here is where a nice addition comes into play. Unlike other kart racers where players are mostly limited to driving karts, Magical Racing Tour outfits players in a variety of vehicles. There are karts of course, but you will also get the opportunity to strap yourself into a snow mobile, boat, and rocket coaster. It's this diversity that adds innovation and introduces all new challenges. Alas it is also this variety that introduces some of the games niggly little flaws. First up, it's great to be able to jump into different vehicles and experience a whole new challenge in controlling your ride. I thought it was pretty cool to be able to motor around in a boat on the water tracks and the sow mobile in Blizzard Beach is jump plain fun. Unfortunately some of the vehicles don't handle as well as the others. While some will say this just adds to the challenge (and it does) others may get frustrated with having to learn different handling characteristics within the same game. It's really an individual choice here and personally I enjoyed the extra learning curve but the boats in particular can be a bit on the loose side which made it difficult to collect items strewn around the course. To wrap things up here, Magical Racing Tour provides all of the thrills and enjoyment of a really good kart racing game. There are bonus tracks that you can race on to collect special items, a nice collection of courses to race on and a cast of characters that fit in perfectly with this style of game. The two-player game plays superbly providing gamers with a open pass to the Disney World courses and provides additional playability to the title. The few drawbacks for the most part can be overcome by memorizing the courses and learning to avoid the games little annoyances, but still it does detract a bit from the gameplay and prevents the game from achieving overall greatness in its genre. In the grand scheme of things, where else can you race around the back lot of Disney Studios or tackle Big Thunder Mountain in a videogame…that alone is worth the price of admission in my book. Game Options: This is a 1 disk game for 1-2 Players. It is compatible with the standard (digital) joypad and the analog stick controls of the dual shock joypad. Games can be saved via memory card (1 block per save). |
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