First off, if you are one of those morons that can’t enjoy a good game unless it is the originator of a genre then stop reading now. I don’t want to waste my clever observations and witty banter on you while you swing from Mario’s jock like a chimp. Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some Mario Kart, but the kart genre doesn’t begin and end with it. That said, let me tell the rest of you about the game that I will now refer to as “THE MARIO KART KILLER!”... how’s that for hype?!

First off this game plays like a dream. The controls are the simplistic pinnacle of kart control perfection! One button breaks(“B“), one accelerates(“A“), one hops(“R“), and one is for the cheap-ass usage of defensive/offensive power-ups(“L“). Now if any of you sly Mario-loving-nay-sayers snuck past my initial “verbal reprimand” you are now probably saying, ”THOSE CONTROLS ARE THE SAME AS MARIO KART! WHAT A RIP OFF!” Well, you need to shut up. Last time I checked you hit “Z” in a hell of a lot of FPS to fire guns, but no one whined about ripping off Goldeneye. Okay, back on track...

The graphics are great in Krazy Racers and create a nice atmosphere for a truly krazy racing experience. The levels are well designed with a great variety of settings to race in. You’ve got all the classics here... a beach track, a grass land track, a lava ridden post-volcanic apocalypse track, an ice track, and tracks in space. Plus you also get what is destined to be a new school kart classic track... the baseball diamond. All the tracks are complete with jumps, pitfalls, interfering penguins, shooting stars, baseballs to dodge around, and the rest of the nutty fun you would expect to find on a day out at the kart races.

The music is also the absolute jam. From the bumping intro complete with vocals by some dork who sounds like the singer from Jamiroquai, to the hard rocking pedal-to-the-metal beats you hear as you screech around the track, the soundtrack never lets you down. All of the character sounds are terrific too and unscathed from the import version. Your racer will laugh when you pass someone and cry as he/she/rock/vampire/octopuss-raver-looking-thing falls down a hole. All of the characters have great personality, but I will have to make a whole section on the characters alone, don’t you worry. Talk about a gang of freaks; don’t even get me started. The weapons are cool, but not exactly ground breaking with one exception that falls into “has to be covered with the characters“ category. You’ve got your heat seeking missile, triple missiles, shields; and holes, bombs and ice to drop behind on unsuspecting tailgaters. So, long story short, this is a must-have launch title and an absolute blast! After all, it is so krazy they had to spell it with a “K”!

And now what you’ve all been waiting for! It’s time for the “What the hell is up with these characters?” section!!! After sifting through starting line-up characters like Simon Belmont, Solid Snake, or even a Contra soldier it's good to see they hit pay dirt with some second string characters and some guys who never made the damn team! (note: This is all in fun and this game still rocks soooooooo hard even with these jobbers as racers! Buy it now!)