Gadget Racers

"An immensely overlooked racing gem!"

Penny Racers is by far the best racing game on the GBA, and definitely one of the best I've ever played. This game is amazingly better than Super Mario Kart and F-Zero!

Gameplay - 10/10

At a glance, Penny Racers is just your average racing game, but when you start playing it, you see that it's much more! Penny Racers is one of the few racing games with character development.

You get money from the races you compete in, and you use your money to buy new parts for your car. There's over 150 different parts (I believe... I'm fairly sure, may have to double-check. But there's still tons!!) that you can use to customize all the aspects of your car: Accel, Top Speed, Handling, Road Grip, Water Grip, Dirt Grip, and I think one more... Later in the game you can buy weapons to give yourself an extra advantage.

There are also over 50 different courses, and sometimes bonus events pop up like Drag Races that you can compete in to get bonus cash and items.

Graphics - 7/10

The graphics are nothing special, but they are at least as good as SNES. Although racing games like Mario Kart have picture perfect graphics, Penny Racers's gameplay outweighs the slight lack of perfection in the graphics department.

Story - 5/10

Racing games all have the same story really... You are a racer and you try to get to the top. Even 'High-Quality' games like Mario Kart and F-Zero have this storyline. But really, does the story in any game play an amazingly large role in how fun it is?

Control - 8/10

Simple, easy to learn, and solid. A to accelerate, B to brake, L+R to shift gears (if you have a manual transmission). No complicated (and annoying) drifting techniques to learn like Mario Kart...

Replay Value - 9/10

With over double the courses of Mario Kart, and insane amounts of car parts and bonus rounds, Penny Racers can last for quite a long time. I really can't get enough of this game... believe it or not, it's holding me back from playing Black & White and Diablo II...

Overall - 9/10

I don't know why this game is so amazingly overlooked while Mario Kart and F-Zero sell millions of copies. This game is just so much better.

Buy or Rent? If you're a fan of racing games, by all means, buy this game! If you like RPGs, the character development in this game would probably appeal to you too. But if you're not a big racing game or RPG fan, then you should definitely rent first.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/03/02, Updated 09/03/02