{"id":33849,"date":"2014-08-31T14:47:54","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T14:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/?p=33849"},"modified":"2017-10-15T05:36:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-15T05:36:45","slug":"family-kart-3d-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/archives\/33849","title":{"rendered":"Family Kart 3D Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Family<\/a><\/p>\n

Family Kart 3D is the latest in a series of sporty budget titles from \u2018Arc System Works\u2019 which bares an extremely strong resemblance to many other mainstream mascot titles such as Mario Kart or Sonic All Star Racing, minus the mascot characters. This game stars two siblings, \u2018Billy and Sarah\u2019 who have brought their extended family along for a Go Karting tournament.<\/p>\n

Upon starting the game you have a choice of game modes. \u2018Grand Prix\u2019 where you can participate in four races to earn points, \u2018Free Play\u2019 which is a single race, \u2018Time Trial\u2019 which can be used to practice particular tracks, \u2018Quick Play\u2019 which is the same as free play on a randomly chosen track with a randomly chosen character & kart, and finally \u2018Leader Board\u2019 which is a racing mode where you can earn a national ranking.<\/p>\n

The game features 3 Grand Prix tournaments, (confusing labelled \u2018Bronze\u2019, \u2018Silver\u2019 & \u2018Gold\u2019) each of which consists of four tracks making a disappointing total of only 12 races. When you begin the Grand Prix mode you\u2019ll notice that the only level of difficult initially available is \u2018Beginner\u2019 as \u2018Journeyman\u2019 (a very unusual name for \u2018Normal\u2019) and \u2018Pro\u2019 require unlocking.<\/p>\n

The first major negative point I noticed while playing happened before I even began racing. When confronted with the character select screen I lost a little bit of my enthusiasm for this title as all 8 characters were distressingly boring. The motif for this series is that the characters are based around members of a generic family, so there is a young boy, a young girl, a mum, a dad, a grandmother, a grandfather etc. none of which convey any sort of personality. The most interest comment I could muster about these eight individuals was that the grandfather had slightly amusing facial hair. That\u2019s the full extent of intrigue and excitement I could muster. I actually had an easier time choosing a kart to drive as the designs of the karts offered far more interest and variety than the family.<\/p>\n

Fortunately my mood shifted up a gear when I began the racing itself which on the whole is pretty decent. The karts were very responsive to the controls and the game runs very smoothly. You can steer the karts with either the analogue stick or the D-pad and there are only two simple face button controls, one to accelerate and one to use items.<\/p>\n

\"Family<\/p>\n

There was another feature to the controls that I have to admit I completely missed on my first play through and that is the drift \/ boost system. Using the L & R triggers you can drift your kart while turning which builds up an F-Zero style boost meter allowing you to store up to three boosts at any one time. I actually had no problem beating all the courses in the Beginner mode without using this system, however by the time I reached the \u2018Journeyman\u2019 level of difficulty these extra boosts actually came in very handy in gaining leads. Do be careful when pressing the boost button as I accidently double tapped it and effectively wasted a boost unnecessarily. It would have been useful if the trigger was deactivated while in mid-boost.<\/p>\n

Initially I couldn\u2019t always get the drift to work but I soon discovered that it only works if you press the drift trigger down in mid turn. You can\u2019t simply hold the button down and then turn like you can in other racers like Juiced. I did discover a fun little exploit in the controls which is that if you start drifting in one direction and then shift you\u2019re momentum into the opposite direction, you can effectively drift in a straight line. This allows you to pretty much drift around the majority of the track regardless of whether you\u2019re on a bend or a straight. This can help you build up a ton of extra boost power.<\/p>\n

The courses in this game are lovely and colourful with a variety of pleasant themes, scenery and set pieces. There are hills, tunnels, bridges, waterfalls, etc. All the basics are here and make for a pleasant enough gaming environment. Some of the detail in the graphics falls a bit below par on closer inspection. The water effects leave a lot to be desired, there was a chain fence type bridge with transparent segments which was a bit tough to look at, and I did notice at one point that the sky appeared to be a little glitchy \/ broken with a black line occasionally running down it. One effect I found a bit annoying (although it may have been a deliberate game design choice) is that when you are hit by a rocket or a mine your screen will temporarily turn white, effectively blast blinding you. These issues aside there is nothing majorly awful about the graphics and overall I\u2019d say the game was pretty nice looking.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much to be said for the sound. A lot of the sound effect and fanfares are very similar to those in Mario Kart and although the music is OK there was nothing memorable or particularly good about it. It\u2019s not bad and it does the job.<\/p>\n

When travelling through the courses during the first Grand Prix I noticed many paths and areas that were coned off and not accessible. I also noticed parts of track in the background scenery which had boost pads on them and was curious to know how to access them as I assumed they were short cuts. I was hoping that the courses would change between laps like in Sonic All Star Racing Transformed, however all would be revealed when I entered a second Grand Prix. It turns out rather than creating 12 completely unique environments for each race there are in fact only 4. Each track gets reused in each Grand Prix but with changes made in which paths are blocked, effectively remixing the stages. For example, in the Silver Cup there is an area where you drive along a bridge under a waterfall, however in the Gold Cup you take a different route and end up travelling across the waterfall itself, making an area you previously believed just to be scenery an integral part of the track. Although I actually do admire the idea of rearranged stages it does serve as a poor substitute for a lack of original environments.<\/p>\n

\"Family<\/a><\/p>\n

Items in this game work in exactly the same way they do in every other cart game. There are missiles, oil slicks (or spilt drinks in this particular game), boosts, mines which are a lot of fun to throw and my personal favourite which is some sort of rainbow car horn. This item has a similar effect to the boost, only stronger and without the worry or having to control your kart at high speed as it effectively puts your kart of rails for a short period.<\/p>\n

All in all this game really didn\u2019t take long to finish. As there are only 12 races by the time you\u2019ve finished \u2018Beginner\u2019 you\u2019ve seen everything the game has to offer, and this can be done in about half an hour if that. There is some replay value in trying the harder difficulties (\u2018Pro\u2019 actually being very challenging), or if you really enjoy this game you could attempt to get a respectable leader board position, however realistically I don\u2019t think this game offers nearly enough to sustain anyone\u2019s interest for very long.<\/p>\n

Although you couldn\u2019t ask for too much from a $5 kart racer this game is amazingly shallow in the way of content. Since the mid 90s there have been so many advancements in Kart racers which this title has chosen to ignore. There are only 12 races in 4 environments, there are no boats, planes, jets, battle modes, adventure modes, vehicle transformations, coin modes, hidden collectables, secret paths, unlockable stages, bosses, there is not even any multiplayer.<\/p>\n

Although this game is cheap and pretty solid at what it does I still can\u2019t recommend it over any of the mainstream kart racers. As the 3DS is combatable with DS games I would sooner recommend grabbing yourself a copy of \u2018Mario Kart 7\u2019 or \u2018Diddy Kong Racing DS\u2019 over this. It could be argued that by choosing a DS title you\u2019d miss out on the effect of the 3D screen, however you won\u2019t actually be missing out on anything. Although \u2018Family Kart 3D\u2019 has 3D graphics and has \u20183D\u2019 in the title it doesn\u2019t take advantage of the effect of the 3DS screen. Whether you play in the 2D or 3D mode it looks exactly the same. Pretty disappointing overall.<\/p>\n

\"Bonus<\/p>\n

REVIEW CODE:<\/b>\u00a0A complimentary Nintendo 3DS code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review.\u00a0Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On your marks, get set…Family Kart 3D!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16466,"featured_media":33855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[127,3203,408],"tags":[591,955,4331,4332,2484,2092,145,2813,376,385],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Family-Kart-3D-header.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Ijik-8NX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonusstage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}