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Billy's Day 1 Impressions

by Billy Berghammer - August 24, 2000, 9:59 pm EDT

After picking my jaw up off the floor when the Gamecube presentation was made it was off to play some GBA demos!

Nothing much more to say than WOW! Here's some write-ups on two games I was able to demo on the show floor:

Mario Kart Advance

The second I got done taking pictures of GBA and GameCube systems, I rushed over to give Mario Kart Advance a whirl. They had a couple of 4-player setups to rage on. So, of course, I felt obligated to fire it up. If you are a Mario Kart fan, or just a racing game fan, this game will not dissapoint you a bit.

Unfortunately Nintendo is not allowing any video of GBA (or GBC for that matter) during Space World, so I can't show you how fluid this game really is. It looks almost as good as it's N64 counterpart. It is very pretty. The GBA has great rotating capabilities. Also, the frame rate was quick with very little slow down. Which is good when you're whippin' red shells!

I am pretty sure the same 8 characters from the N64 version were there. I didn't get a chance to check out all the set up options so I had no time to see everything I wanted. There were people at every GBA setting the game up for you. Boooooo! Let us look please! Well maybe tomorrow.

The power-ups seemed identical to Mario Kart 64, which in my opinion is really good. The controls were a little difficult to get used to, but after a lap or two, I was crushin' the competition. Left shoulder controlled the power-ups, right shoulder controlled the jump (which creates the slide ala SNES), A=Gas, and B=Break.

The power slides are something I think will take a little while to grasp. Granted I only got to play this title once. But hell...It's MARIO KART! And the 4-player (with link which we have pictures of) madness was wonderful. Tomorrow I'm heading to that Kiosk fir....um....second. Right after I get a shot at Sin and Punishment. It's too bad we'll have to wait until July in the states to pick this game up. Or, of course you could import this bad boy in March. I don't know if I'll be able to wait that long.

Wai Wai Racing Advance

Well if you haven’t learned by now, I am a huge Mario Kart fan. Very few kart type racing games have appealed to me outside of Mario Kart, and it’s not too hard to notice there’s many cheap knock-off’s out there. Diddy Kong Racing I did thoroughly enjoy, and soon we’ll have Mickey Adventure Racing, which I am also looking forward to. As I have already stated on this site, I do like Mario Kart Advance. I was a bit skeptical about Konami’s entrance into the kart arena. But after one shot at this game I knew I was in kart love all over again, but in a different sense.

Maybe it’s the fact that I got to see more than one course in this game, or maybe it’s because it offered up a little more originality. Or maybe it was nice to race with some characters that I really loved, and haven’t gotten to play a racing game with before. Regardless….I liked this game a lot!

The controls felt a bit tighter than MKA. I have played this game 3 times, and still haven’t gotten the powerslide down. Still, the controls felt great.

The characters had a lot of personality. It was nice to have a series of characters from a different company. I always raced with Ganbare and Powerful Pro boy. Those were the only ones I could recognize. But there seem to be at least 8 characters total that you can race with.

Graphically this game was really good looking. The frame rate was smooth, and the game was extremely detailed and colorful. This was reflected in the different courses that I got to play. I played only 2 different courses. One was more like a land based level like Mario Kart Advances first level. It had a little more inspiration than Mario’s level. There were bridges with holes in it that you could fall through, as well as other original obstacles like lighting clouds that would strike you with lighting if you were in the wrong place. The other level I played had more of a F-Zero feel to it. This level took place in the clouds. There were speed boost arrows, and jumps that you needed to hit to get you to the next level.

If this game doesn’t come out in the US, I definitely would suggest an import of this game. You can’t go wrong with picking up Konami Wacky Racing. Sure, if you like Kart games and you have a GBA, 9 times out of 10 you're going to pick up MKA automatically. If you want to try out something a little different, or just add more Kart fun to your life, I implore you to pick up Wai Wai Racing Advance. You won’t be disappointed!

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