CART Fury Championship Racing

"A solid arcade game, a dismal port. I expect more from Midway than this poor effort."

CART Fury (5.25.01, Midway) is a port of Midway’s arcade game of the same name. When I first saw this game in the arcade I figured it would just be another one of Midway’s typical racing games - sorely lacking in substance, yet strong in the fun factor department. It was obvious from just a few plays in the arcade that my initial guess was pretty much right on target, but I was still eager to see what they would bring to the console version of the game. I knew that, with the processing power of the PS2, Midway for once could pretty much emulate exactly what they produced for the arcade.

Graphics: 6/10
The first thing I noticed when I popped the game in at home was that the quality of graphics had been reduced significantly. While the depiction of the cars and tracks is still accurate and all the relative scaling is correct, the polygons count per car dropped by a good number, and when in close quarters you really notice the lack of textures and refinement in the vehicles and track terrain. In addition, even with these graphical reductions, there is still some slowdown and fps drop throughout, and that’s really inexcusable. What really frustrates me in this department is that the eye candy from the arcade remains. The buildings and background are pretty, heck, they look fantastic. But at what cost? While the background gives each track a very unique and individual feel, why reduce the quality of the subjects, not the background extras, and on top of all that, still allow slowdown? That simply shows a really poor effort on the part of Midway, or at least extremely poor priorities.

Sound: BGM: 5/10 Effects: 3/10
I don’t really remember the BGM from the arcade, but on the PS2 the music is just not right. I mean, sure, it’s not your typical bad techno-rock racing soundtrack, but CART Fury is full of hip-hop and rap tracks that just don’t fit in. They’re good hip-hop tracks - Outkast is one of my favorite groups of all time - but neither Bombs over Baghdad (nor any of the other tracks) should be part of the BGM of any arcade racing game. I’m not saying that rap and hip-hop should be excluded from racing games, but these tracks in particular just didn’t sound right, and it ruins the otherwise solid racing environment.
. . . As for the effects, this is one area where Midway truly needed to pay more attention. The engine sounds are so generic and bland that racing anywhere near another car makes me wince. Every car engine sounds exactly the same, no matter the situation.

Gameplay: 4/10 subscores: control:8/10 AI: 0/10 UI: 4/10
This is your typical arcade racer, whatever mode you choose. The physics are clearly arcade-oriented, even in simulation mode - the only real gameplay difference between simulation and arcade mode is the lack of turboboosts, which throw your vehicle to insane speeds. There’s also a season mode which lets you go through the points championship. The other two modes are Driving 101, which is sort of like the Gran Turismo license tests, Driving 101, which is sort of like the Gran Turismo license tests, and subgames, a similar concept to the Crazy Taxi minigames.
. . . There are no problems with control. Typical arcade controls, easy to learn, easy to play.
. . . Season mode is pretty fun. I mean, it’s an arcade racer after all, and the game feels fast at least. But what kills this game is the horrible AI. The AI cars have essentially no guidelines; they are not restricted by the same physics engine your car is running under. Quite literally, any AI car can pass you at any moment suddenly, but near the end of the race it seems every AI car is slowed down considerably. More often than not I found myself in last place by the second lap only to pass all the cars on the final lap. Could Midway possibly have made the game any less fun?
. . . The UI and presentation are nothing special, in fact the menu graphics looked like they were created by a middle-schooler using a prehistoric version of Photoshop. Low res, blocky, and counter-intuitive, reminiscent of SNES days. And finally, the necessity to keep loading menus is just dismal. Even simple menu functions take 3-5 seconds, which is not much, but this happens even when you are reloading a menu that you were just in. This makes it a big hassle to figure out stuff on your own.

Length/Replayability: 3/10
Simply put, CART Fury does not have a lot of replayability, or length. It is an arcade game, after all. It can hold your attention for a while, as the tracks look good and everything moves quickly, but the racing itself is not much fun at all. As with any game which in itself is not fun, there is no lasting appeal.

FINAL SCORE: 4/10
I wanted to give this game the benefit of the doubt and score it a 5 instead of a 4, but I just can’t get the bitter taste out of my mouth when I see ports that are this bad. For god's sake, they are PORTS. Midway just didn’t put much effort here at all, it’s obviously another one of those name-brand titles that they hope to sell based on the arcade effects. This game can be fun, but it’s one of those things more reserved for the Sunday afternoons when you’re bored and have absolutely nothing else to do. All in all, I can’t recommend this game to anybody, except for hardcore fans of Midway’s other games like Hydro Thunder, etc. But I liked those games, and hated this, so even that may be a long shot.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/01, Updated 07/26/01