Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

For many the Kart Racing sub-genre is dominated by the likes of Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing and little else, but what of the many third-party racers? Some would argue that they deserve more than to be just solely known as clones, like this curious offering. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...   

Konami Krazy Racers

I'll be the first to admit that I had not previously played Konami Krazy Racers until its release on the Wii U VC despite not only owning a Game Boy Advance since launch day, seeing it on the shelves of various stores and still opting for Super Mario Advance which I had my heart set on; this is probably a good thing as I hadn't properly played Super Mario Bros. 2 until that point either but that's not to say that I didn't regret not picking up this quirky racing title to this day. I do maintain that it's a good thing that I have only recently experienced it though as it's quite simply sublime to be playing it on a big screen along with my trusty Club Nintendo SNES Classic Controller as it feels like instead I'm not playing a portable game for the first time but rather something that's more akin to a long, lost Super Nintendo title featuring many mascots from Konami, a company who I used to adore for creating many childhood favourites in addition to many top-rated titles until their very unfortunate recent downward spiral.

But I digress, for this is a celebration of the Konami a lot of us once knew plus this Virtual Console release just might be a glimmer of hope that the company which now looks dead behind the eyes might still possess at least a part of the heart it once had; indeed bringing together many of its best franchises for use in such a title is such an inspired idea that it's a wonder it didn't happen any sooner, but just what exactly brought about such a mass gathering of Konami characters? Let's turn to the original manual to find out. A Krazy World hovering in space has been flooded with go-carts! Children and adults alike are crazy about go-karting! One day, this e-mail was sent to a group of Konami characters by Konami NET requesting their appearance in a go-cart race.

Goemon is going for gold, or at least silver.

So there we have a solid excuse for some fun racing, not only that but this also extends to explaining away the in-game UI which looks like a turn of the Millennium PC desktop featuring icons representing the Item Shop where you can pay to increase the frquency of items using coins colleced mid-race, Rumour Billboard which provides new pieces of information as you progress, License Centre which makes you take tests at certain points so that you can unlock further cups, Save function and of course the Race Menu which gives you a choice of five options but of course two of these - Mini Battle & VS - are not available but perhaps with the recent revelation that local wireless options are now being added to certain future 3DS VC titles this might mean multiplayer modes might one day be reinstated, at least we can only hope.

Focusing on what is available though we have Krazy GP, which features a range of tracks directly inspired by certain franchises, you have the green fields of Ganbare Dochu, Sky Bridge which brings back Mario Kart Super Circuit memories for me, Moon Road which is set in space plus it fetures some unusual hazards, Poppin' Beach is your average simple track with nice scenery; all of these are found in the initial Krazy Cup which eases you gently into the game. Then along comes Hyper Cup which has Power Stadium where you are essentially driving a "Home Run" round the course plus you get to take on the Cyber Field which fantastically is Metal Gear Solid inspired so expect lots of box-shaped obstacles! In the Premium cup things heat up in Magma Castle which is of course based on Castlevania featuring fireballs and bats flying in your general direction, then a chance to cool off in Ice Paradise which gives you plenty of Penguins to play with as you slide across slippery surfaces; if you best all of these then you can get to tackle the Champion Cup but I'll let you discover for yourself which delights will await you there.

Snake! Hurt me more! I mean... victory shall be mine!

You get to pick from a reasonable roster of classic characters from Konami's illustrious history, including Goemon from Mystical Ninja, Dracula from Castlevania, Ninja from Metal Gear, Moai from Gradius, Pawapuro-Kun from Jikkyo Power Pro Baseball, Nyami from Pop'n Music, Pastel from Twinbee and Takosuke from Parodius. But that's not all as there are apparently four unlockable characters including Bear Tank from Rakuga Kids, Ebisumaru from Mystical Ninja, King from Pop'n Music and Vic Viper from Gradius! Of course if I was to include a Konami character of my choice then I would have selected Sparkster from Rocket Knight Adventures because he was a particularly practical possum kitted out in a rocket-powered suit of armour with a set of Steampunk style goggles and a substantial sword to boot, but alas he didn't seem to make the roster for some reason; perhaps the rocket pack would have given him an unfair advantage? It's something I have often pondered but I digress as there's still a solid selection overall.  

But of course a good Kart Racer needs power ups which here come in the form of Missiles, Time Bombs, an Electric Battery, Eye Wrap, Ice Crash, Pigs, Scooper Drill and even a changable invincibility Barrier where Ninja gets back-up from a Hind-D, Goemon enlists a Samurai, Dracula summons Death plus many more. Those are the power-ups you get for picking up the Red Bells but if you select the Blue Bells then you will instead gain a Turbo Boost which can add a further tactical element to things, the Bells are of course taken from Twinbee which is another nice Konami nod. For the other remaining playable modes you of course have Time Attack which will inevitably add some replay value as you attempt to beat your own times, though you could always upload a picture to the Miiverse community so you could have a nice friendly bit of competition, if you prefer to keep things portable then you can play on the Gamepad which works well enough and may feel more natural to anyone who played it on the GBA originally; Free Run mode does exactly what you'd expect so no explanation required.

Just when you thought you'd seen it all, a Panda Ballerina... in space!

What helps to hold it all together is that the controls are so beautifully simple as you merely hold down the "A" button to accelerate - press just before the fourth light at the start for that Turbo boost! - while using the Directional Pad to control, there are no "Power Slides" here which adds to the challenge rather than detracting that much; you can still jump with the right shoulder button which will help you with certain shortcuts but your power up button is mapped to the left instead of having one button for two actions, if you do get stuck then you can put the kart into reverse by holding "B" and pressing back on the D-Pad but you'll rarely use it once you're used to the controls. Another thing worth mentioning is some of the mechanics employed by the tracks, you have multiple surfaces to take into account which feel different which is challenging in itself but then you also have on one of the tracks some pads which will throw you into the next ones as part of a chain reaction but only if you stop accelerating while traveling along it, you then have to carefully regain control after this section or you'll go straight into a wall, it's little things like this which keep the gameplay interesting.

All of the visuals have an excellent amount of detail to them even when displayed on the big screen, smoothing over the pixels doesn't do too much but it at least blends it all together a bit but even without altering anything there are plenty of small details to take in such as the beautiful backdrops, cute character expressions plus all the scaling tricks in the book are used helping to add that important illusion of greater depth. Of course the music is nothing short of spectacular as it features many tunes from Konami's past which sound spectcular on a good set of speakers, of course my personal favourites are the remixed "Beginning" theme from Castlevania III Dracula's Curse and the more chip-tune sounding version of "Encounter" from Metal Gear Solid; really though the entire soundtrack is fantastic but be warned as the main theme may get stuck inside your head after only a few minutes, all of the sound effects are brilliant too even featuring some surprisingly decent digitised voice samples.

What version of OS is your menu running off Konami? Nice penguin.

Overall I really cannot recommend Konami Krazy Racers enought as while I had heard a lot about it over the years I'm surprised it took me this long to actually try it but I still maintain that in my case it was for the best as playing it on the big screen really made the experience for me, if you're more of a traditionalist then this release might not be for you though you can do a lot worse than buying it anyway to play solely on the Gamepad as it's a perfectly viable option as is playing it on an original cartridge though I suppose if you have one to hand that is. Even without any multiplayer you still get a fair amount for your money as four different cups playable over three different difficulties means you'll be racing for a fair few sessions, of course the big question is inevitably going to be; is it better than Mario Kart Super Circuit? To that I answer, in some respects yes but I would still regard Mario Kart as being a title which more faithfully represents the Game Boy Advance within my memory, as for which I would prefer to play today? It has to be the "Krazier" of the two as it simply feels fresher to me and will be remembered for representing the Konami that I and many others once loved as opposed to the big shell it has now become.

Verdict : One of the greatest Karting games ever created and a Konami classic.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!