Heracles Chariot Racing Review
Posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 by Brad Ward
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Check out a review of the greek WiiWare cart racer.
The multiplayer bag, allows for up to 4 players playing on one console locally, however there is no online options. You get 3 different modes Championship, Single Race and Battle mode. Just like other references, the battle mode plays a lot like Mario Kart, you get the items from the races and its up to 4 characters and you have 3 lives before you are knocked out of the battle.
So overall, this game is fun but it lacks any customizability of any options or settings, found in the very basic of games. The core game is almost as much fun as Mario Kart, however a lot of the levels are found with a lot of narrow roadways, and a few of the carts tend to be very clunky so it can lead to some frustration, however once you get to use to these things. You can see that this game is not up to a value of a retail release, but at 800 Nintendo Points this game its a nice little value, especially with 4 player split screen, 15 courses and a handful of characters. While this game does not have features like trick racing, online competition or even classic controller or Gamecube controller support and graphics the quality of Mario Kart. If your looking for a fun racing game and your done with Mario Kart check this one out. Pros
Cons
Graphics 2 Sound 3 Gameplay 3 Value 2 Tilt 3.5
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Tags: Heracles Chariot Racing
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The Wii is usually a game system that some gamers tend to avoid for racing games for the most part, they usually lack the feature set that tbey expect from a racing game and are usually end up being ports or stripped down versions of the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 versions or even the Playstation 2 versions. However there are a few racing titles on the system that you play not because it offers the features or graphics of a Gran Turismo or a Forza, but because it takes a theme and mixes racing with it, with an unique art style. Heracles Chariot Racing is a title for Wiiware that takes the formula that is found in games like Mario Kart and Crash Bandicoot racing, you have a theme and tracks and courses based on the theme and a handful of selectable racers to go with those courses. Heracles Chariot Racing originally made its debut on the Playstation 2, it was a title that was available only in the Europe territories.
Heracles Chariot Racing is heavily inspired by the Disney franchise Hercules, with the art style transcending almost every area, of the game from the overall art direction, to included characters to the courses that you get to go through in the game. If you have not followed the story of Hercules or seen in the movie, the game takes place in Greek mythology era, with themes including chariots,minotaurs,Medusa,Poseidon and the legendary Hercules, but for obvious reasons he is known as Heracules in this game. The game does not live up to the Mario Kart expectations of control options, it only gives you the option of the controlling the vehicle with the left stick, Z button for drifting, B button for power ups and A button for braking. Just like Mario Kart, the game has power up items that you can use against your opponent and certain ones like speed boost. The gameplay itself, i found myself being very frustrated at times, with certain carts, with other carts the gameplay was quite fun overall, the game itself is subject to a lot of pitfalls, more then any other Mario Kart game in the past. The Nunchuk is also used to take corners tighter, which is needed in some races.
The game itself gives you both multiplayer and single player components, the single player component allows you to play any unlocked course for a single race and play through a handful of circuits, which you have to unlock as you go through the lower circuits you get access to more. Each character that you pick to go through the circuits or do the races, have 4 stats, speed,road holding,acceleration, and weight. Heracules for example has 3 stars on all 4 areas and he is very balanced. The game also allows you to play through time trials and try to get the best timed score. However someone like Minotaur has 1 for speed,1 for weight , 5 acceleration and 5 for road holding. Once you get into the circuit you get an option of easy, normal or hard. There is 3 different trophies you can obtain in the game. Bronze, silver and gold are the choices, you start out with Bronze and you can eventually work your way through and go for the gold. Each circuit race is 3 laps long and at the end you are ranked down to the second like in most racing games, just like in Mario Kart you are also ranked by points, so if you do better in one race and worse then the other the points will cancel each other out. Each Circuit features 5 races in each circuit, that feature races like the Realm of Hades, much like Bowsers Castle and Mount Olympus which is a lot like Rainbow Road.
