Konami's Mario clone was one of the first four games ever to be shown in action on the Game Boy Advance. While Nintendo's own Mario Kart Advance is guaranteed to be the ultimate in Mode 7 racing satisfaction, Konami's own racing extravaganza -- featuring superstars from Konami's past and present -- should give Mario and Co. a race for the flag.
Konami's Waiwai Racing is a Mario Kart clone -- a Mario Kart Advance clone even. Still, there's more to merit for this game than it's derivative nature. For one, the characters of the game are vintage Konami heroes -- you can see from this screen that Goemon is a big character, but so are baseball players from Jikkyuu Powerful Pro Baseball and the Octopus character from Parodius.
Also impressive is the distant horizon seen in the game -- you can see miles ahead on the track, so missing turns and losing sight of obstacles will not be a problem. However, unlike Mario Kart Advance, Konami Waiwai Racing Advance does not seem to use sprite trees or roadside obstacles (making it much more like the original Super Mario Kart rather than the new one), and the track seems to warp up ahead due to the strange camera angle. Hills will probably not be possible in the game (unless the designers come up with an amazing fix with mode 7), so hopefully this effect won't make the game look odd in motion.
From the newest shots of Konami Waiwai Racing, we can see some spectacular special effects in action. The newest shot from Konami shows reflections on a glassy surface, beautifully rendered underneath the sprite cars. Also shown for the first time on the Game Boy Advance is transparency effects -- the ghost dino character shown in the pict is slightly translucent, and the effect that shines off of it glows slightly but also fades into the background.
When you race around the Mode 7 track, you pick up Parodius bells for power-ups to give yourself the upper-hand against the other racers. From the playable version at Spaceworld 2000, I think the action was a little quicker than Mario Kart on the Advance, but that was a very early version of both games -- don't count on Nintendo letting Konami rub it off the track, so each will be in a feuding race to the finish.
The Konami characters used in the game, however, pose a problem if this game is to be brought over for American gamers -- many of the characters used are obscure Japanese Konami icons, including baseball players from the Japanese Powerful Pro Baseball and others that have totally missed the US. If and when Konami USA does pick this one up, what characters will they sub in for these oddballs... Mad Dog from Contra? Harry Mason of Silent Hill? A hockey player from Blades of Steel? Konami has some great games, but it'll be tough to figure out which game should be part of WaiWai USA, and remember that Castlevania and MGS are already spoken for.
Now Playing in Background: Krazy Racers Intro
-IGN.com
