Antz Racing

"Forget the fact the game came years after the movie...it still sucks"

Antz Racing is a kart base racer based off the cgi movie from the late 1990s. The game ends up trying to emulate the Mario kart experience except with major difference that only makes the style similar at all.

Antz gives you a selection of pretty similar characters with different vechiles that really just resemble odd shapes. Its pretty hard to tell what character exactly is who, and since none of these characters have any in-game personality its barely worth the effort of trying to figure it out.

The main meat of the game consists of the Grand Prix mode that's been dubbed '4 Seasons'. Though in reality you could easily say this is a lie since you play through 5 seasons, Winter/Summer/Fall/Spring/Indian Summer. The actual racing is pretty good for a gbc racer but the problem is consistent with many other racers, the AI is not there.

In most races you'll see the three other computer controlled 'cars' (yes theirs only 4 racers total) for a few seconds at the beginning of every race. Past that you simply drive faster and are the only racer who seems to pickup powerups laying around the track. This creates a very dull self-endurance challenge since unless you destroy your racer constantly the computer will never give you any challenge at all.

The tracks themselves are well themed for the seasons and some are done simply but others tend to have multiple paths where taking the shortcut only helps if your behind. For some reason if your leading, it doesn't matter what length of path you take the computer will never catch up but if you are trailing the computer racers always take the shortcuts. There is one other problem with the tracks and that's simply shortcuts that open depending on simply random occurrences on the track, so races may take longer simply because a short cut doesn't feel like opening.

Finally for gameplay we come to the items. I must say they are useful for the most part, though the choice of putting them on the track with no real random factor is a bit questionable. Theres only one 'random' item that really gives you what you need most at the time. If you're damage meter is high and your racer is going to break they tend to always give you wrenches which repair your vechile. Aside from wrenches other items you'll find are several versions of boosters, a missile weapon, a ghosting item, and a 1-up item which gives you spare cars.

Sound in Antz Racing is well quite laughable. The sound effects are just well whistles and dings that all sound the same. The music for the tracks is alright at first but since theres only one song it gets old very very fast.

Graphics is a win-lose kind of category to break down. While the character models are hard to tell apart as well as the different racers the tracks are pretty good. The tracks are detailed pretty nice, and resemble micro machine esque tracks. Things found on the track look like what they were designed to actually be, which is a bit surprising after seeing the character models.

Controls might be the one section this game really shines in. The controls in Antz Racing are on the spot responsive, and make up at points for the bland racing you have to endure. There is one little snag in this categories perfection, and thats the inclusion of a jump that doesn't respond or work on the track at all most of the time. It actually tends to slow you down or lead you to hitting the wall of a track.

Lets be honest here, there is no replay ability to be found in this game. Even racing junkies would be bored with this game in the end.

In conclusion Antz Racing ends up being like games for future systems (Cartoon Network Speedway) and delivers a really flawed and awful experience. The racing purely isn't fun, theres nothing to do afterwards, and it simply isn't worth playing in the first place. There are great Gameboy Color games worth playing, but this doesn't even come close.

Gameplay:6.0
Controls:9.5
Graphics:8.0
Audio:4.0
Replay Value:1.0
Final Score:5.9 or 5 on gamefaqs

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/05