Muppet Race Mania, then, is to be commended for possessing some of the flavor of the classic Muppet movies and TV show. Its tournament mode is actually structured, loosely, around the progression of the first Muppet movie, with cutscenes drawn therefrom to move things along. It's the barest of skeletons on which to hang a kart game, but the cutscenes are still pretty entertaining to watch.
The game proper, of course, is a slightly different issue. The best adjective I can muster to describe it is "random." It's fast, it's goofy, it looks good, and it seems to control well enough, in a loose Speed Punks sort of way, but the AI and pacing are constructed such that driving skill seems to take a backseat to just enjoying the goofy atmosphere. The tracks have the expansiveness of RC Revenge, so it's easy to get lost or stuck in corners (despite the guide arrow), but those kind of setbacks don't seem to affect your performance all that much, at least in the earlier races. Just head back on track, keep grabbing the fruit powerups (they fuel your turbo boost), and you'll be a competitor again in no time. There's also a neat feature for a quick start, like Parappa crossed with Rad Racer - while the Christmas tree counts down, you can follow a little sequence of Simon button presses, and the more you get before the starting gun, the faster your boost when you begin the race.
Muppet Race Mania is certainly a graphically sound game, with well-done characters, sharp backgrounds, and a very fast framerate that's no hindrance to control at all - there's nothing that should stop it from appealing to its youthful target audience or the occasional older gamer on a nostalgia trip. Sure, my love for the classic shows may serve to influence my judgment just a little bit, but I still think this is a remarkably solid kart game, especially considering the unfortunate history of the license.
-- David Smith
A Muppet game preview cannot, in good faith, begin without mentioning that all other Muppet games have been dreck -- unimaginative and insipid in every line of code. There is more challenge in the single Door Dilemma question of Labyrinth than the entire sum of 8-bit, 16-bit, and handheld Muppet games.
Midway is planning to change all of that now that they're pulling the strings, and while the first set of Muppet games are about as creative as a Fraggle Rock episode where somebody gets lost and Gobo has to sing about missing them (in other words, not creative), they have played and looked nice, so we're looking forward to seeing more of these titles.
Now, why would we, game journalists with decades of experience playing videogames, be excited about yet another Kart racer? The answer is simple: Remember the scene in The Muppet Movie where Kermit and Fozzie met up in a broken-down church with a band of musical misfits? Recall how cool those guys were -- sax man Zoot, bassist and zonked-out babe Janice, animal drummer Animal, and dangling manager Scooter. Those guys should have gone onto superstardom, and yet Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem very rarely appeared in other Muppet adventures or games. But finally, the ensemble is coming up large in a brand new videogame! It's not a headlining gig, but for gamers, there's only one thing to know -- You can play as Dr. Teeth!
The rest of the cast is also an eclectic mix of Muppet stars that haven't come out of the Henson toy box in quite a while as well as Muppet faves: Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Robin, Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, Rizzo the Rat, Rowlf, Animal, Janice, Dr. Teeth, Floyd, Zoot, Scooter, Sam the Eagle, Pepe, Link, Bobo, Johnny Fiamma, Sal, Bean Bunny, Clifford, a Fraggle Rock Doozer, and the Swedish Chef!
This new Muppet Race Mania was developed by Traveler's Tales, PlayStation tech masters whose previous titles such as Disney's Toy Story 2 pushed the system hard in the pursuit of kids' attention spans. The company was also the developers behind Sega's Sonic R, so they have muscled their way before in racing games.
In all, Midway and Traveler's Tales are cooking up 30 tracks, 25 Muppets, 25 vehicles for them to ride in (including planes, cars, and bananas), a Battle Mode, some Stunt Courses, Tournament Play, a Multiplayer Racing game (unfortunately for only two players), weapons such as penguin mines, running chickens, bouncy bombs, and fish projectiles, and a wacky Chicken-Chase game.
At E3, only the Battle Mode was working, and the camera was very messy, but the engine held a lot of promise. Curved surfaces could be found all over the place, including a bowl with ramps and overpasses to get away from the chaos, all with a smooth framerate, big characters, and vibrant colors, in the large playfield. Even in two-player games, computer drones were all over the battlefield, and the gameplay was more akin with Vigilante 8 than Mario Kart (four different weapons were available, and the challenge of exploring and setting traps was more part of the play).
If Midway and Traveler's Tales can fix the roaming camera problems and add some more innovative gameplay, they may have something fun here. Of course, there's never a dull moment when you're hanging with Sam the Eagle, so we'll be interested to see how this one progresses before its October release.
--Marc Nix
