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Thursday 6 March, 2008
ENTRY TWO
Gameplay:
There is no storyline to the game, so the narrative progression is obviously absent. The point of the game is merely to race the other characters and attain first place and the highest score possible. The lack of storyline gives the play no reason to have any emotional attachment to the characters. The only reason a player would have to pick one character to play over the other is because some characters are faster than others (because they are smaller and weigh less).
The game does help foster social interaction among the players (there can be up to four). The game has a separate "battle mode" where the main objective is to successfully attack your opponent three times in order to win the match. I believe this is a more personal level of gameplay that will be more interesting ESPECIALLY for a multi-player game.
Design:
The innovative aspects that set Mario Kart apart from other racing games are the level designs and battle-like interaction during gameplay. As you progress from the Mushroom Cup to the Star Cup, etc, etc...the tracks become increasingly more complex and interesting. More obstacles are present, and even lack of obstacles (edges of the track going off into space) leaving you stuck on the track, or flung far off the edge of it.
The game stays interesting mostly because of the progressive design of the levels. Other than that, the gameplay stays pretty much the same throughout. There are no power-ups that can be permanently acquired, only the occasional mushrooms that are available in the multicolored cubes on each track that will boost your speed, but only temporarily.
The tone of the gameworld is very fast paced and chaotic. The tone is created mostly by the quick tempo of the upbeat soundtrack.
Although the weapons that are put on each track are fun and add more fun to the gameplay, they get incredibly redundant after a while. It would have been nice to have specific weapons available to specific tracks, and even specific characters in the game. And maybe even weapons that you may acquire through completing the game successfully and keep them permanently to use in future races.
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