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The kart racer is an interesting genre to look at. It seems that a company can’t produce
a game in it without the game being called a Mario Kart of Diddy Kong Racing clone. Some
of this criticism is actually warranted, as established franchises seem to think that
they need all of their characters to race together for some reason, but the game I have
today puts a nice little twist on the traditional kart racer. For one thing, you’re not actually
in a kart at all; you’re in a plane, and the game’s odd sense of humor really makes
it stand out. This is Freaky Flyers for the GameCube.
Freaky Flyers uses an adventure mode that lets you pick from a few different characters,
with more becoming available as time goes on. Each flyer portrays a different ethnic
or cultural stereotype, and although a few of these are pretty offensive, the majority
of them are amusing. There’s the naïve Midwesterner, the elitist German, the ***
British librarian, the mobster, and several others, each with their own little backstory
and subplot between races, and this is really important for a game like this. With gameplay
that’s bound to be compared to other, more popular titles, adding this humor and story
element makes this more attractive.
Gameplay in Freaky Flyers does feel pretty similar to the flying in Diddy Kong Racing,
but the game also has its own ideas. For one thing, the track design is non-linear, so
you have the option to find your own little short cuts and pick good spots to try to pull
ahead. In addition, you also have a little machine gun on your plane that you can use
to take out racers ahead of you, and a number of power-ups and items that are pretty standard
in kart racers. There’s the dumb missiles, the barrier, the homing missiles, the boost…you
get the idea. This really doesn’t help the game stand out as much as its humor does.
Freaky Flyers is also quite a bit more difficult than other kart racers. Opponents are smart
and quick to avoid attacks, and course designs make for a lot of crashes. You’ll also find
yourself getting blown up by opponents about as often as you blow them up, so this is a
good choice for someone looking for a bit of a challenge. In addition, there are some
mini-games available to help you work on skills that may be giving you some trouble when you
go to win a race.
I feel like this game may have just worked better if it was a different genre. While
the gameplay does offer a few little changes to the formula for kart racers, it still feels
kind of derivative. The “nice little twist” I mentioned comes from the game’s humor
more than anything else, and if they kept that and made the gameplay more unique, it
would’ve done it some good, and that just isn’t possible in a genre as limited as
the kart racer.
Freaky Flyers is one of the better-looking games I’ve seen on the GameCube. The visual
style reminded me a bit of Pixar, and the all of the characters have a ton of expression.
Voice acting was also over-the-top, but it was supposed to be, and it worked for most
of the characters, although a few lines did make me cringe.
Although Freaky Flyers does not offer enough in terms of new ideas to the kart racer to
warrant buying it, if you have a friend who owns it, see if you can borrow it. The humor
alone makes it worth taking for a test flight.