![]() ![]() This is fine during the first few cups, when not terribly much steering is involved, but later on it's just impossible to manoeuvre with the requisite speed to avoid obstacles. ![]() Sadly, it's horribly imprecise - it's nearly impossible to take corners and dodge obstacles with any kind of grace or accuracy, and you end up waving and hoping. Thwacking the A button throws a basic punch, which blows breakable barrels out of the way and stops other chimps in their tracks. In order to gain forward momentum, you have to shake the remote and Nunchuk up and down alternately until you reach a maximum speed then, shaking one or the other turns left or right, and both at once does a jump. It's easy to see how the game would have worked with the bongos - it would still have been imprecise, but it would at least have felt less forced and pointless. You unlock new characters and difficulty levels as you go along, et cetera et cetera. ![]() You race flying monkeys, or Kremlings (whatever happened to them?), around wacky tracks, making use of items in a variety of game modes - Grand Prix, Time Trail and Challenge, primarily. It's lazy to call Barrel Blast a Mario Kart rip-off, mostly because it genuinely does attempt to throw in its own ideas in order to imbue the gameplay with its own rhythm and flow, but it's the easiest comparison to draw. The first is true, at least - the developer, Paon Corporation, has taken the DK catalogue off Rare's filthy traitorous hands, and is also responsible for DK Jungle Climber. This design is almost weird enough to be mistaken for French. It's like some horrible Korean knock-off from the future, made by a development team that only had access to Rare's 1992 character catalogue and hadn't actually played a game since Super Mario Kart. Although there's nothing overtly weird or completely broken about it, something about the sum of its parts just doesn't work. Partly because early-'90s surfer Funky Kong and the disturbingly-breasted Candy Kong and - eurgh - Wrinkly Kong are whizzing about strapped to two barrels shaped exactly like the bongo controllers, partly because the Wiimote actually emits bongo noises as you're forced to wave it pointlessly about, but mostly because it's just so bad. And it's also inescapably clear that it's a GameCube game designed for use with the bongos, misguidedly resurrected as a Wii game.Įssentially, Barrel Blast - Jet Race in Europe - makes you feel deeply uncomfortable when you're playing it. ![]() Remember that Donkey Kong racing game that they showed as a first trailer with the unveiling of the GameCube? It's basically that, but it's all gone wrong, and the monkeys are flying about strapped to rocket barrels, and all those long-forgotten, ill-advised SNES Donkey Kong characters are suddenly back in 3D - horrible, disturbing 3D. And for me Mario Kart Wii is just the opposite.This game is an anachronism. So, all in all, a criminally underrated game imo. It is also a great little workout at times as you pump the num chuck and remote to get up to full speed- Once at max speed you can focus on maneuvering. You win your races due to skill and timing. Comparing it to the apparently untouchable Mario Kart Wii this racer does not have the ridiculous "give constantly overpowered items to the guy at the back" programmed in. It is hardly on rails- you will just slowly go around the track bumping into things if you go afk. Reviewers say the on rails mechanic is an insult. Picking up a Wii and this game in 2014 and it is clearly better than most other racers on the system. There seems to have been an agenda to hate on this game at the time of its release. After a few play sessions I realized that if I can time my banana fueled turbo boosts to hit a few barrels in a row the turbo boost is extended for example. Tight, fun controls and a lot of hidden depth. My son, wife and I play this more than any other racer on the Wii (and we have nearly all of them). My son, wife and I play this more than any other racer on the Wii We cannot understand all the negative reviews for this game in my house. We cannot understand all the negative reviews for this game in my house. ![]()
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