The fact that you can’t switch out your character in the Grand Prix mode without starting a new save file means you’ll have to race the same bland courses over and over just to see every ending. Worse yet, the difficulty of each course skyrockets after the initial duel with each racer, forcing you to perfect each turn or get lucky to edge out on top in order to receive every part and unlock every track. The balance of each racer’s car abilities and special moves is very off-kilter, leaving certain characters’ parts like Guts Man’s or Ice Man’s situational at best, taking out most of the fun of cobbling pieces from other racers together. Considering that the roaming enemies and obstacles are highly likely to turn into exploding mines at any point even if you focus on driving due to the AI obtaining the Bomb Switch item can make the experience as cheap as any blue shell on your tail. Also, considering the effort to obtain items, they are either overly tilted in your favor, greatly hinder you, or are too difficult to use effectively to be worth the risk of going out of your way to earn them. The racetracks are fairly simple and basic with many of them sharing the same boring themes of a city or an offroad dirt rally with only a few stages including any interesting gimmicks like ice, conveyor belts, or switching activating floors. Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, and Crash Team Racing it ain’t. Though the height of the genre’s popularity wouldn’t come until a few years down the line, only to bring the largest glut of mediocre licensed sludge, Battle & Chase wouldn’t have done much to break the kart racer cash-in stigma. Unfortunately, Sony of America pulled the plug on the basis that too many mascot kart racers were clogging the marketplace already. It even recieved print ads for the upcoming release in gaming magazines. “Kaze” would become Roll’s theme song in various later games and spin-offs.īattle & Chase was ready to be released in the US in April 1997, a month after landing in Japan. A flawless run as Roll grants the player a special added ending song for her: “Kaze yo Tsutaete” sung by Yoshino Aoki. There are a few interesting twists on characterizations Ice Man is portrayed having a crush on Roll as he made an ice scuplture of her and him together in the South Pole, and Quick Man strives to challenge his rival: former champion Turbo Man (why wasn’t HE in this game?). They’re simple– sometimes rather benign– little artwork stills, but some have a humorous tinge to them, like Spring Man buying too many weights for his body or Guts Man getting booed out for his painfullly sung enka tune on karaoke. Each ending showcases a unique way the winner celebrate or spends his or her hard-earned cash prize. They aren’t strewn across the track waiting to be picked up, they are only given at random after blasting or running over enough baddies that wander or lie in the way – the bigger they are, the more points they’re worth, like an E-rated Carmageddon.īesting Wily in a race earns an ending for the character chosen. The major spin on the genre, other than earning parts from fellow racers, is how items are gained. In total there are 11 tracks in the Grand Prix mode with 4 more available in Time Attack and Vs., though they are relatively simpler unfancy bonus courses. There are ten default racers with two more hidden away, and they are a decently well-chosen mix of heroes, villains, and fitting favorite classic robot masters (though why Spring Man of all candidates?). Each opponent can be challenged again with a harder difficulty to earn another part, with the body chassis exclusively saved for the fourth and final acquisition. Each kart part has their own unique strengths, divided into four interchangable slots: wheels, wing, engine, and body. Winning a race in 1st place against each track’s opponent earns you a piece of their ride. Sadly, most of their onscreen time and all of their audio was axed when the game was released overseas. Plum & Ripot also commentate on the race in gameplay. Chest describes the courses on the selection menu, Plum interviews the opponent at the start of the race, and Ripot signals the start and hands out the prize at the end of the grand prix. Hopefully a certain mad scientist isn’t dastardly enough to cheat them out of their victory… An extreme racing TV show is giving away a 10 million Zenny grand prize to the winner and there’s nearly a dozen robots up to put their metal to the pedal to come out on top. The kart racer genre is a standard go-to game for many a license and popular video game IP.
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