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System:
Nintendo 64
Genre:
Racing
Publisher:
THQ
Developer:
Takara
Players:
1-4
Release date/year:
12/31/1998
Other systems:
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- Penny Racers
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1998 Takara - THQ - N64
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Penny Racers is basically a poor attempt at cloning Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64. I think they were trying to pump up sales and get more popularity for their system in a time where the Sony Playstation is supreme. They thought to themselves ‘Well, Mario Kart 64 was hugely successful, I wonder is we can warp it, change it’s name, and re-release it?’ Unfortunately for Nintendo, it didn’t work. Their attempt at warping it some failed. They tried to make a memorable game, they failed at that as well. For more thrilling opinions, let’s get into the review!
- {~~Main Scores~~}
BREAKDOWN
Gameplay: 7
Control: 4
Graphics: 7
Sound: 7
Enjoyability: 7
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Gameplay
The gameplay in this game is a bit hard to formulate an opinion on. On one side of the spectrum, the technical side, this game isn’t very well put together. But then, on the side the people first see, the outer mask of the game, or the fun factor, it is very high. You have a lot of fun with his game, but the parts that put it together are insufficient. At this point I may be making no sense, so let’s try out an analogy. Penny Racers is like a carving pumpkin. On the outside we have the useful part that will provide you with the enjoyment, but then on the inside we have the disgusting part that ruins the pumpkin as a whole. I hope that didn’t make my point even more confusing!
Anyway, basically you are racing to the end of the track against other racers. But, in this game, as you may have been able to tell from the title of it, you are racing in really small cars. The name ‘Penny Racers’ fits nicely. You are racing in miniature buggies. I still don’t know why they are so small. I suppose it all has to do with the ripping off of Mario Kart. The racers use carts in Mario Kart, and in this game they changed it to really small cars.
These little cars have weapons as well, providing a little more enjoyment. But of course, the weapons can be a deterrent as well. Trying to use weapons and drive well simultaneously can be difficult. As I said, your racer is trying to get to the end of the race first, no matter what it takes. Their state of mind is that they will get there first, even if they have to destroy the competition, they will win. What your racer can do in order to destroy the others is either drop, throw, or fire off a variety of different weapons. As I said, this is n enjoyable thing, because destruction and bloodbaths are fun. But, trying to kill and drive at the same time is not quite as fun.
There are a few different tracks and cars you can play on in this game. There aren’t that many though, that is another area that this game fell short on. There are about 10 racers to race with, and even fewer tracks to race on. One thing I didn’t like about the tracks other than the low selection, is the poor design. The tracks are simple, much too basic, by that, I mean that the tracks are just monotonous, there is not a very wide variety of thing there to keep you enthralled.
Overall the gameplay is good, but not great. There are quite a few flaws that I can point out here, but I don’t want to make myself seem overly picky. I think they could have done much better in this, especially if they were trying to make a half-assed Mario Kart clone like I think they were. Because Mario Kart is so great, a clone would usually be good as well, unfortunately, in this area it wasn’t.
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Control
I didn’t like the control in this game at all. When you are trying to turn your car or anything like that, it gets very hard, and I don’t like that. In a racing game, I like to have perfectly smooth, easy turns. In this game, they make it so you have to struggle, and often have to go right into the grass to get around the corner.I absolutely hate that. Then, as if that weren’t bad enough, they make it hard to make small turns to keep in the center, because the turns seem to jump right to the max. The full turn may not be enough to turn a sharp corner, but if you are making a small adjustment, and it jumps right to the full turn, it causes some problems when steering to make a turn, and even to stay straight on course. The main controls you use are the A and B buttons to stop and go, and Z to use weapons (I believe). Overall, this area was very poor. One of the things I value the most in a racing game is the ability to turn corners properly, Penny Racers just didn’t have that.
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Graphics
The graphics of Penny Racers is another area which fell short of reaching it’s true potential. Everything in this game is not as three dimensional as the Nintendo 64 is capable of making them. Perhaps they do stick out some, like any other Nintendo 64 game naturally does, but the objects don’t even come close to being average N64 graphics, instead they are slightly below average. Everything is flat and small. The view you use in this game is behind, and slightly above your car, from that view everything looks small, partially three dimensional, and not very detailed. Basically, Nintendo underachieved.
The cars for one look perhaps the worst. Due to the fact they are so small, they don’t have a whole lot of detailing in them. They are basically a very small cube with wheels and some two dimensional features on them. They look like a geometrical figure you might see in math class, that has graffiti on it. Even if the cars had to be small (don’t ask me why they did), couldn’t they have been detailed, or at the very least, shaped like a car?
From there, the backgrounds go in the same direction. They did not live up to the potential that they had. Everything in the graphical area is done well, but they could have been so very much better. The sheer fact that this is a Nintendo 64 game and that system has good bare minimum graphics, is the only thing saving this game from looking like it is on the SNES, or even the GameBoy Colour.
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Sound
The sound is pretty much the same as the other areas. Good but not as good as it could have been, seems to be the theme of the day. Everything is small scale, and wasn’t completely thought out. Don’t get me wrong though, the sound is good. I’m just saying, like the rest of the game, it didn’t live up to the potential it had.
The music is kind of small scale, and beepy. I think it was trying to go long with the miniature theme that the game has. The small cars kind of create a puny mood, then the music backs that up by being computer generated, beepy, and kind of annoying.
The sound effects go the same way. The main sound effect you have is the one of the car engine. As you can guess, it isn’t the most powerful of engines, and it just as a dinky sound. Dinky sound, isn’t that the perfect way to describe the sound overall? Yes it is.
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Enjoyability
The enjoyability is basically mediocre. This game is fun to play, but only on in a small way. The thing that makes this area so low is the poor control. It just drove me crazy. It is hard making 60 degree turn when your car only turns 40 degrees, and it is hard making a 2 degree turn when the turn automatically jumps to 40 degrees with the tap of a button.
The other thing that brought the enjoyability down slightly is the poor quality of the musical composure and the sound effects used. Usually, I like to have sound supporting the overall game, instead it just is there. At least it doesn’t make the game worse…
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{~~Other Important Scores~~}
Replay Value: Average
Average is a good way to describe the replay value. You wont totally object to playing the game a few more times, but you wont really want to jump to it either. I think it is a good place to be. Some games that have too high of a replay value are a little short, and have no real progression, some games with low replay value are just bad, making you not want to play it ever again, if you even finish it. This one is neither of those extremes, it is a happy medium.
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Challenge: Average
Much like the replay value, the challenge is average. I would say that the challenge is really easy, because it pretty much is. The thing that is making this game harder is the difficulty of making the turns. Is a racing game, all you do is make turns, and when you can’t even do that properly, you have no idea how annoying it can be.
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GOOD POINTS
-Replay Value
-Challenge
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MEDIOCRE POINTS
-Gameplay
-Graphics
-Sound
-Enjoyability
-Everything And Anything Else I Didn’t Mention
This game doesn’t quite get a seifer guarantee, but I suggest at least trying it. It is very fun to some, but it is very annoying to others. I hope I at least helped you choose which category you fall into.
//Seifer psx
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