MySims Racing (Wii)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Austin Light
• Reviewed on: 06/23/2009
• Released on: 06/12/2009
• Originally published on GameSpot: MySims Racing (Wii) Review

With each game they star in, the cheerful little square people of the MySims world take another step away from their simulation roots. Being cute, mischievous mascotlike figures, it was only a matter of time before they ended up in karts armed with silly weapons. Their first foray into racing isn't going to knock Mario off his kart-racing throne, but MySims Racing is a solid kart racer with a few nice tricks that breathe life into a stale genre.

6211971NoneThe king's world gets turned upside down.

MySims Racing offers three modes for your driving pleasure--Quick Race, Story, and multiplayer--but the Story mode is the star of this vehicle. Your created character is on a quest to bring the excitement of racing back to a dusty old town and restore it to glory when its fabled racing star disappears after losing a bet to the evil Morcubus. The narrative isn't groundbreaking, but it's a fun, lighthearted affair that adds some variety to the standard kart-racing formula.

Story mode is set up with large over-world maps, much like Super Mario World, with different points of interest offering a variety of events. The events range from standard races and time trials to checkpoint challenges and timed collection runs. The events break up the tedium of other racers and offer some challenge outside of the actual racing events, which tend to be on the easy side. The more you complete, the more you gain access to other events, letting you drive to different maps with new tracks and events. Many of the events are optional, but earning the gold medal will net you new vehicle upgrades; some of which affect performance and some of which affect style. The optional challenges also give you the benefit of learning each track and finding the shortcuts that lead to the fastest routes. You'll likely tire of the tracks if you aim to complete every single event in the game, but for a casual play-through, the variety is nice.

The other modes, Quick Race and multiplayer, are exactly what they sound like; they let you jump into a race on any of the tracks against the computer or up to three other people. The multiplayer is vanilla, and there's no online option in the Wii version, which is odd because the DS version has completely serviceable online features. You can save your custom sim and car to a Wii Remote and use that on a friend's console, which is a nice feature, but it doesn't really make up for the lack of online play. The split-screen multiplayer is also missing a Battle mode and, instead, supports only straight races. It would have been nice to have some of the events from the Story mode incorporated into multiplayer.

The actual racing doesn't break any new ground. There are weapon pick-ups sprinkled on each track for you to use during races, and you can drift, boost, and hop. It's familiar territory, but it plays well. The weapons are generally tame, but a few are interesting additions to the standard set. These include the beehive that slows down a racer more with each successive hit, and the road-blocking acorn that produces a tree in your wake. With the exception of an extremely disorienting tornado that flips the screen upside down for a few moments, the weapons are well balanced. You won't find any cheap blue turtle shells here; though weapons can give you an edge, you have to rely more on your racing skills to win. Skillful driving (bumping, drifting, and getting huge air) is rewarded with extra boost juice. The levels are also covered in different colored crystals that fill your boost meter to varying degrees. It's a good give-and-take system that has you going out of your way at times just to snag a few more crystals.

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