Muppet Race Mania - Review

[Minardi fan]

MUPPET RACE MANIA
Playstation
Sony Computer Entertainment
£19.99

Wow. Where the heck did this game come from? Arriving like Miss Piggy with a bad case of PMT, Muppet Race Mania has screeched onto the kart racer track and has well and truly taken pole position.

The game starts of simply enough - 6 tracks, and 8-ish muppets. By the time you complete it however, you will have over 25 Muppets, (including The Swedish Chef, Robin, Scooter, Janice, Link, Bobo, Dr. Teeth, Floyd Pepper, Johnny Fiamma, AND Pepe...) and 34 - yes THIRTY-FOUR - tracks.

The tracks are themed around the various Muppet films, such as the excellent Muppet Christmas Carol. Plus there are 4 hidden Fraggle Rock tracks, which I am nowhere near unlocking. There are 3 types of course - race, battle, and stunt. Race is exactly what it says it is. Battle is like the Battle Mode from Mario Kart - tear around arenas trying to be the last man (or should I say Muppet?) standing. The Stunt courses are like a platformer - you have to negotiate your Muppet and vehicle from one end to the other. All the tracks are rendered with stunning graphics - they put Speed Freaks et al. to shame.

New tracks are unlocked by winning the previous one, and you are rewarded for doing so with a clip from the respective film (check out the hilarious Door In A Jar clip from Muppets in Space). Extra characters are gained through the Adventure mode - but more on that later.

So what does it play like? I'll tell you what it plays like - A DREAM. The individual vehicles, from Rowlf's sluggish-but-nice Bulldozer to Bean Bunny's nippy Snowmobile, all handle differently and wonderfully. All the vehicles are interchangable with different Muppets too!!!

The racing is frantic, but not too difficult, requiring clever use of weapons (Fish, Bombs, Penguins and Chickens), fruit (for speed boosts) and short cuts littered around the superbly designed tracks.

Modes include Tournament, Battle Tournament and Adventure, where you search around each circuit picking up stars, fruit, special icons, and a clapperboard to enable you to watch the track's film clip again. Collect all of these and you will be rewarded with extra goodies such as Battle Races and the frenetic Chicken Chase.

I could go on for hours about this game - I haven't mentioned the great two-player mode, the fantastic music or the other secrets. This is a quality title and it deserves to be in any respectable collection. Heck - even Tourist thinks its good! (Trust me, thats like getting blood from a stone... )

Uppers:
Graphics
Music
Handling
It's the Muppets!!!!
Fantastic racing
HUUUUUGE lifespan
The whole damn' thing

Downers:
No 4-player mode


Score: 9/10.

BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT.

Minardi fan


[This message has been edited by Minardi fan (edited 23 May 2000).]

[Gerard]

Who needs Grand Prix 3?
Muppets Race Mania forever!!!
It is indeed a very funny game to play.
When I first saw it I thought: 'kids stuff'.
But 4 hours later I realised I was still playing.
If you want to have some real fun, buy this game.

[This message has been edited by Gerard (edited 23 May 2000).]

[Minardi fan]

Hurrah! Well done Gerard! You will grow to cherish the game as one of the Playstation's finest.

BUY NOW NON-MUPPETEERS!