Mario Kart 64 was a seminal game in racing game history. While Mario Kart was born on the SNES, it was on the Nintendo 64 that it established itself as the 3D powerhouse we’ve come to love over the years in its many iterations and its many imitators.
That’s where DreamWorks Super Star Kartz finds itself, as the latest in a long like of pretenders to the crown. But what’s truly bizarre is that if you took a quick look at this game, you might actually think you were playing the game from over a decade ago.
Backlog Quest is a month long special event on Clearance Bin Review featuring daily game reviews of the games that have sat on the shelf for simply too long; old and new.
From Day 23 – Dreamworks Superstar Kartz, Tristan Rendo writes, "Dreamworks Superstar Kartz is yet another imitator in a long line of Mario Kart imitations. Like the countless other kart racers before it, Superstar Kartz fails to ever really capture the same charm and all around fun gameplay as the Italian plumber-starring original. Relying heavily on the cast of characters from Dreamworks popular films, the game doesn’t have much else to go on but ultimately, the game is just lacking in heart."
"Remember that wave of 100% garbage releases on the Wii from Data Design Interactive? I feel sorry for anyone who will forever be haunted by the likes of Ninjabread Man. Interesting how a name like that could turn up in a review like this, wouldn't you say? Although I have never touched any of DDI's games (and hopefully you can say the same), you know as well as I do that they're for producing some of the worst games on the system. And in a similar manner, this DreamWorks-inspired racer reaches a level of bad that I didn't think possible on the 3DS (at least, not at this stage in the game)." -- Wiiloveit.com
Younger players will probably like seeing their favorite characters mix it up on the tracks, but simplistic gameplay and a lack of options make this a poor Mario Kart substitute.
Full review by Evan Nathans.
