Arc System Works’ Family Kart 3D is a clone of the Mario Kart series. Not that that’s a bad thing. If you’ve ever played Mario Kart you’ll know just what to expect in this title and should have no trouble getting into it.
The game is a pretty good replica of the landmark Nintendo racer with much of what you find in one. You race through circuts against other racers, picking up rainbow-coloured ‘question mark’ blocks and then using the power-ups you receive to either give yourself a leg up or knock your opponents down a peg.
You have three game modes to pick from: Grand Prix, Free Play and Time Mode. The first one is where you will participate in one of three cups consisting of four races. Each race you are awarded points based on where you place. The racer with the most points at the end wins the cup.
Sound familiar?
Free play allows you to race against the other racers in any course you choose while Time Mode lets you race alone to set a speed record. These records can be uploaded and compared against the “national rankings.”
You can choose from one eight characters to race with and another eight karts. The character you choose doesn’t really matter as it is the karts that have the varying stats. The Rocket for example has a great top speed but poor acceleration while the Eco-Upcycler has the reverse stats. Racing in a cardboard box is actually quite funny.
The characters, as stated before, don’t matter to the overall game aside from the graphic on the screen and the final image you get when you win a cup. They are pretty generic characters with a boy, girl, mom, dad, cuz, auntie, gramps and nan.
There is also a Quick Play mode to choose if you don’t care who you play as, the kart you drive or the course you race. One button press and you’ll be off to the races.
There are twelve courses in Family Kart 3D with varying enviromnent from countryside, an icy area, the beach and a rocky road. While the courses feel very Mario-esque, the challenge and difficulty from the Mario games isn’t as tough here.
Part of the challenge in Mario Kart is keeping control of your Kart and staying on the road. There was always the danger of crashing into obstacles, falling into the water or off the edge of a cliff. No worries here as the entire course is surrounded with a fence. Hitting it will slow you down but you won’t have to be rescued and put back on the road. There are helpful road signs along the side of the road, and also some that pop up on screen, to let you know of upcoming turns as well.
With the course being lined with fences there was also no hidden short cuts to sneak through the course. Another hallmark of Mario Kart.
The power-ups felt a bit inconsistent. There are things such as rockets (red shell), boosters (mushroom), oil slicks (banana peel) and such that help you either come back from behind or help you stay in the lead, but the times I received some of them felt out of place. It’s not uncommon to be sitting in first place with a comfortable lead and keep getting items to speed myself forward, or a rocket to shoot at nobody since I’m in the lead.
It could have been just a glitch, but it was a helpful one at least.
Drifting is also something that you can do while racing and different karts have different strengths when it comes to drifting. When you drift you will also charge up your boost meter which can be used to give you a much needed boost should you clip one of the fences or be stopped short. It will also help you navigate corners without losing too much speed.
The one glaring feature missing in the game is multiplayer. A racing like this is the perfect candidate for playing with friends. Not even having the minimum of local multiplayer is very unfortunate and really hurts the lasting replay-ability of the game.
Overall Family Kart 3D is a very fun racer. It looks good, sounds good and handles well. The lack of muliplayer really holds it back from being great.
