Racin' Ratz

"A fun little puzzle game that will kepp you busy for weeks"

Is it possible that a game aimed at kids can be of high quality while appealing to older gamers as well? In the case of Racin’ Ratz, the answer is yes. The story goes like this: you are playing with your Racin’ Ratz car in the house and knock over your mother’s precious vase you are sent to your room as a punishment. However, you can still have fun as you have your Racin’ Ratz car to control. You have to complete various missions throughout the house.

Game play 8/10- The game play consists of you going into ten different rooms of your house and completing various missions. The missions include driving onto your sister’s bed to get her diary or driving onto the table in your grandmother’s room to get her bingo game cards. Although this sounds simple there is a twist to this game play. In order to complete your missions you need to access power-ups , which are scattered throughout each room. For example, in order to reach the bingo cards you need to reach the table, which is obviously above the ground. There is a narrow ramp connecting the table to a block with a landing pad, which is lower in height than the table. You would first have to get a rocket power-up, which would allow your vehicle to fly up to the landing pad on the block. In order to go up the narrow ramp you would have to find the shrinking car power-up, which allows your vehicle to become even tinier than it already is and then allows your vehicle to go up the ramp and then grab the bingo cards. The heart of the game is actually a puzzle game with driving thrown into the mix. This can be considered refreshing considering all of the other shallow racing games available for the Gameboy Color.

Control 6/10- When you start your game, you are given the option of either driving the Racin’ Ratz car or truck. However, both vehicles control exactly the same so it makes no difference whatsoever which vehicle you decide to choose. There are two types of control schemes an “easy” control scheme and a “hard” control scheme. The easy control scheme is when you use the D-Pad to move your vehicle. Pressing up on the D-Pad will make the vehicle move upward, while pressing down on the D-Pad will make your vehicle move downward and so on. You press the A button to use your first stored power-up while you press the B button to use your second stored power-up. This control scheme can be very tiring on your thumb as you have to press and hold the direction on the D-Pad in which you would like to move in. The hard control scheme is when the vehicle moves on its own and you push the D-Pad to change the direction you would like to move in. The problem with this control scheme is that you are constantly having to quickly change directions and because the vehicle is always moving, you can easily miss a quick turn you might need to make. I would have preferred more traditional control mode where you press A button to accelerate and you use the D-Pad to steer your vehicle. Although the control can be frustrating, it is not bad enough to ruin the overall fun of the game.

Graphics 7/10- The graphics are bright and colorful as they should be in this type of game. The rooms in the house are somewhat detailed with designs on the wall and various objects in each room such as a night table next to the bed in the bedroom. You can choose what color you would like your vehicle to be. Unfortunately, due to the small screen of the Gameboy Color your vehicle is very small and resembles a weirdly shaped rectangle with an antenna more than a car or truck.

Replay Value 6/10- There are about 25 missions throughout the entire game, which will take you quite a while to finish. Although there are two different characters to choose in the game (a boy and a girl) there is no difference in the actually game play between the two characters. Since the missions are fun, you will probably want to play the game more than once. However, the lack of a two player mode and any extra game play modes bring down the replay value of Racin’ Ratz.

It should be also noted that Racin’ Ratz includes a password system so you can save your game after each mission. Fortunately, the password is only 6 letters and numbers so you won’t have to spend all day entering your password.

Overall 7/10- Racin’ Ratz is a fun driving puzzle game that you can just pick up and play while having enough depth to it so you will want to come back for more. If you are fairly good at puzzle and driving games you should be able to finish the game within about 7 hours. Even though the control could be improved, Racin’ Ratz is a still game that deserves playing. It is a worthy purchase for anyone who wants a good challenge regardless of your age.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/01, Updated 06/20/01