NASCAR Kart Racing

Football has two sides of gaming: simulation and arcade. You can buy Madden or Street/Blitz. Same with soccer, hockey, basketball and baseball. NASCAR racing, on the other hand, has been stuck in the same genre of racing since the first NASCAR game was made. EA has pushed the series back and forth between the sim and arcade styles of play, but it’s typically the same game tucked underneath.

NASCAR Kart Racing is the first true step away from NASCAR’s traditional boundaries. At first glance, you’ll mistake it for Mario Kart 64. Upon playing it, you’d swear it was from before MK64’s generation. And after seeing the power-ups – which include heat-seeking rockets, oil spills and sticks of dynamite – few will think this is a NASCAR game.

Mechanically, everything you see and experience in NASCAR Kart Racing has an unavoidable “been there, done that” element attached. The controls are predictable, using the Wii remote by itself (and Wii Wheel for better balance), the Wii remote and nunchuk, or the GameCube controller. Up to four can race simultaneously, power-ups are dispersed frequently via highly visible icons, and the courses, while interesting for their architecture, are by no means groundbreaking.

This, and the unexpectedly easy race events, is where NASCAR Kart Racing could slip away from the older Mario Kart-loving crowd. Younger gamers, however, will be quite pleased with what the game has accomplished. For starters, the controls are just slightly below the quality of the Mario Kart games. That says a lot for the programming and QA job, which seems to fall short with every other developer. Sharp turns are easy to pull off, especially with the Wii remote-only controls. Unless you’re being carless, it’s almost impossible to fall off the side of a track. (Just like Mario Kart, some of the courses are suspended in air.)

The gameplay is not overly quick but is at about the speed you’d expect for a kart racer. On certain courses, particularly the city race and industrial environment, the speed feels greater because of the varied background visuals. Speed boosts do not increase the sensation as much as you’ll wish, but they are a significant part of every race. Each event, whether a single or multi-race competition, begins with the selection of two NASCAR drivers. Since the AI is very lenient, your driver and teammate choices do not matter as much as they do in other racing games. Slide, zone, grind and boost are measured in colored icon points and are the only stats available.

When going solo against the AI, players control the first driver and the computer controls the other as your teammate. Teammates don’t do much on their own but always manage to catch up or fall back to the player’s slot in the race. Which is lucky for the player, because you won’t earn a speed boost without getting “in the zone” (drive within close proximity to your teammate). The zone is indicated by what appears to be an electrical shockwave that runs from you to your teammate. Stay within the zone for a few seconds – the time varies depending on your driver’s stat ratings – and you’ll gain a speed boost. But if the zone is broken (if you get too far away from your teammate) before the current boost is filled, that boost will be lost.

Up to three boosts may be earned and stored at one time. Boosts are useful at any point in a race, but they are potentially most effective when you’re still inside the zone. That’s because boosting can create a slingshot effect; if your teammate is in front and you boost, you’ll slingshot ahead. The opposite is also true. For every consecutive slingshot, the slingshot numbers begin to add up, all the way to a maximum slingshot of four. The meaning of these numbers, however, isn’t quite clear, since the speed boosts do not seem to be any more effective as they multiply. But if you are successful in getting a max slingshot, you’ll also earn several additional boosts, which may be the benefit the game is trying to convey.

NASCAR Kart Racing includes 12 different courses, but with many more championships offered, you’ll race each course multiple times before the end. These rehashed moments are occasionally enhanced with the addition of a time trial event (drive more than the set number of feet within the time limit) or a track reversal that is exactly as it sounds.

This isn’t a long racing game or one that will challenge the best of your racing skills. But it provides enough entertainment – decent tracks, solid controls, functional power-ups – to satisfy the needs of the under 12 crowd.

Gameplay: 7.0
Mario Kart with another license. The game is shorter, easier and more repetitive than the MK titles, but most of the power-ups and control styles are the same, and the race mechanics are very similar.

Graphics: 2.0
The background architecture is decent, but don't be fooled by the strategically angled screenshots: NASCAR Kart Racing's washed-out visuals are below the quality of an N64 launch title.

Sound: 3.0
While the gameplay sounds are pretty basic, the voice-overs are downright laughable. Instead of hiring some actors to describe the forthcoming race, the game includes an indecipherable voice track that can only be described as a series of excited utterances. Without any way to understand their mumbling, the descriptions are provided on screen with text.

Difficulty: Easy
This game makes Mario Kart seem very, very difficult.

Concept: 6.0
Nothing fresh or entirely new; just a solid clone of a beloved kart racing franchise.

Multiplayer: 7.5
NASCAR Kart Racing's long-term fun is found within its four-player split-screen racing.

Overall: 7.3
It won’t blow the minds of anyone expecting a true NASCAR or Mario Kart experience. But if you enjoy the latter and want a fun clone of that franchise, NASCAR Kart Racing is one of the best made for Wii.

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