Between Castlevania and now Krazy Racers, I am absolutely floored at Konami's handling of the GBA launch. KKR and CotM are now my favorite launch games, with Tony Hawk 2 somewhere down the line after that. I just got down playing this insane little kart-racer for over an hour and a half, and my impressions are in danger of bursting a forehead vein if I don't hurry up and dispense them.

Yes, the title theme rocks. This is the clearest voice I've ever heard in a portable game, and it turns out that the rest of the music is just as excellent and catchy. I only wish there was a Goemon-style Japanese song somewhere in the game...maybe I just haven't found it yet.

The graphics are a stunner, and I don't say that lightly. For a 2D fan like myself, KKR is even more visually impressive than Tony Hawk 2; this is the fastest, smoothest, most advanced Mode-7 I've ever witnessed. The track and all its accompanying effects (and there are tons: fire, baseballs, even vertical obstacles!) are clearly visible all the way into the horizon. During replays the camera swoops in and out as if on a helicopter, zooms to whatever depth it wants, even does ultra-cool fly-by shots and close-up rotations to spotlight your character. Each racer has lots of animation frames, and your rivals scale perfectly, never looking grainy. Each track has its own beautiful hi-res background against which the playing surface rotates. The overall visual scheme is very bright and colorful, and in fact much easier to see than any of the other GBA games I've played extensively, especially Castlevania. Some of the sky and space stages have transparent track surfaces and full-screen backgrounds...wow. To sum up this game's graphics: I've played Mario Kart Advance, and this looks better in every way.

The gameplay will be extremely familiar and very easy to get into for any fan of kart racing. You can powerslide, fire all sorts of silly weapons, and pick up coins off the track. The difference there is that coins don't seem to just speed you up, but rather they're used to buy special weapon upgrades at a shop. I haven't quite figured out how that works, but it could add a neat little RPG element. The track design is simply impeccable. There are loads of ingenius obstacles and features that go a long way to spice up the relatively familiar gameplay experience. Some tracks even have progressive elements, such as time of day...by the third lap, that one course has plunged into night and many things are subsequently harder to discern. Weapons are about half traditional, half new. You still have straight and homing missiles and invisibility, but now there are timed bombs and portable holes too, not to mention a special weapon for each character that seems mostly like Mario Kart's star item with a couple quirks.

In a surprising move, KKR even has Gran Turismo's infamous license tests, although they're mostly painless (though still challenging). There is a "Hot Potato"-like mini-game that I haven't figured out yet, plus a pretty cool rendition of "Chicken", where you race towards a chasm and try to stop closest to the edge without going over. The only disappointing mode is Versus, which (1) I can't play because my friends are non-gaming losers and (2) apparently only supports two players. Blah. Still, it looks like there is TONS to do by yourself, including loads of hidden tracks and characters to unlock. The level of difficulty is very respectable too...I've raced the first three cups on Easy, and barely squeaked by on a few courses. Looks like I'll have to brush up on my skills before I take on Hard!

Crap, I knew I'd ramble on for too long with this gem. Uh, to finish off these impressions...my recommendation so far is to start rolling pennies, driving to the sperm bank, setting up the lemonade stand...anything necessary to shell out for this game. Konami Krazy Racers has proven worthy of my forty bucks in just three short hours. Now leave me alone and let me go back to playing!