Karnaaj Rally (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

As a someone who's been doing this for some time I should explain that it's not all about receiving games a few weeks before their release date in order to post a review when they finally hit the shelves. Occasionally you get the opportunity to preview games when they're in the beta stage but even more interesting than that is getting a first look at a title that has yet to find a publisher. Karnaaj Rally was one such game and when I first laid eyes on this top-down racer it's fair to say that I was very impressed. In fact, I'd welcome more games of this type. Not racing games in particular but rather original titles which have been developed by coders and designers simply because they want to. Seems like the breeding ground for the perfect game to me, but is it?

Gameplay

Obviously this game is all about racing. The tracks start out fairly simply and your first race involves a fairly standard circuit so you can get used to the handling. Your car however is not so standard and is also equipped with rockets and mines hinting that 'dirty' racing may sometimes prove a more successful strategy than simply employing driving skills. There?s much more to do than simply winning races though, as you'll quickly discover that Karnaaj Rally is as much a game of strategy as anything. On completing each race you are given prize money and eagle-eyed racers should also have gathered some coins during the race. This can then be used in the shop before the next race to improve your chances of success. You may wish to improve your engine or tires or equip your car with more weapons and armor. There's even a section where you can bet money on the outcome of the race. This makes the money-collecting element in a race so important that you may find yourself losing

races just to pick up that last bonus coin or item.

As you'd expect there are a number of modes to indulge in so whilst some drivers will opt for the Quick Race others may prefer the more involved Championship option. The first allows you to choose any car and any track and really is an excellent way to discover how the cars handle on the various tracks. In the second you must gain points from each race in order to earn enough to move to the next (more challenging) round. All your stats are saved to a battery backup making it tempting to just have ?one more go? to beat the last lap time or win points in a championship. This is important as the developers have launched a website where you can enter your score code (presented after a race) into a worldwide ranking system which presents an almost endless multiplayer option. The cart itself also presents a mode where up to four players can battle it out for the championship although you will require additional copies of the game to enjoy this feature.

Controls

Racing games, whether they be 'Mode-7' or 'top-down', are all about handling. As the control system was almost flawless in the beta version we previewed last year the developers needed to do very little to perfect it. The courses themselves are in varied locations with different terrains affecting your car?s overall performance. Snow and ice for example make the car difficult to maneuver and corners become very dangerous. Crossing rivers, on the other hand, will slow your car down tremendously as will getting a traffic cone stuck under the front bumper (or fender as the Americans call it). This makes for a more challenging but ultimately more rewarding race, which feels much tighter than Karnaaj Rally?s closest rival Micro Machines (incidentally also developed by Paragon 5).

Graphics

Visually, Karnaaj Rally is outstanding. The developers have mixed traditional rendered backgrounds with 3D elements creating some stunning racing environments. The polygons here however, are used in such a subtle fashion that you may not even realize they're actually there. Rock faces, overhead lighting and trees all retain the correct perspective giving you a more realistic bird?s eye viewpoint of the various tracks and although it's difficult to tell from the screenshots, seeing the game in motion is a real experience. There's also some wonderful animation on the various cars like, for instance, when they start to suffer damage smoke billows from the rear. Even fine details aren't missed so hitting 'Turbo' or performing a power slide mean that the various terrains will fly up around the car adding an edge of realism to the race physics. All this is so wonderful that you can forgive the rather psychedelic characters that populate the menu systems who, though we've no idea who they are, under no circumstances would we actually wish to meet.

Sound

The audio was the only thing not present in our beta version so this is as new to us as it is to you. Fortunately, like everything else in this game, it's spot on. The whole thing is a well-conceived mix of sound effects and music. The vehicle sounds are the real highlight though, with everything from tires screeching to the occasional collision sounding very realistic albeit in miniaturized form. The soundtrack is rather more average as, while it's still good, it's not nearly as sophisticated as some of the music we've heard on GBA titles in recent months.

Final comments

This finished version is a great improvement on what was already an outstanding game. There are more and varied levels and much of the game has been slightly tweaked just to make it that much better. It's hard to believe that at one stage this could have been yet another 'shelved' project. After our original preview we received a number of letters from readers asking what they could do to convince publishers to pick up this title. Whether it was the strength of gamers? opinions or simply Jaleco knowing a good thing when they saw it, eventually we all got what we wanted and hopefully this will happen more often in the future. A great little game on every level and we can't recommend it enough. Get it now!

Pro: Visually Stunning.
Con: Occasional Clumsy Gameplay
Final score: 9

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