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| Karnaaj Rally GBA review | |
| developer | Paragon 5 |
| publisher | Jaleco Entertainment |
| author | Marcin |
| date | Jun. 24, 2003 |
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| sound |  |
| gameplay | |
| value | |
| reviewer's toast | |
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Chromehounds
NA Review by Marcin
Oblivion-The First 3 Hours
PC Quicktake by walTer
Comic Quick Takes January 25, 2006
Feature by Mike
I don't hold with 3D graphics on the GameBoy Advance. There's a time and place for 3D, and it's on my PC monitor, where it looks good and feels right. The tiny GBA screen is no place for 3D racing or FPS'ing - unless you really feel like revisiting the pixellated fun of Wolfenstein or Doom. I've been looking around for a good top-down racer (anyone remember that simplistic arcade machine? top down racing, four steering wheels and simple tracks) in the style of Death Rally - a title I not only own, but I actually know where the CD is! I finally found it in Karnaaj Rally, an almost exact remake of Death Rally, but for the GBA - and it's only 10 bucks online.
paragon 5 knows games
I took a quick look at paragon 5's site, and it's worth a look - they appear to know exactly what type of games are well-suited for the GBA platform. Top down racers, a pinball title, a vertical shooter (well ok, so it's GBC - but one still does not exist for the GBA, which I find odd) - all things I've been wondering at the absence of, browsing through titles like 3D shooters and Turismo style racers - which obviously belong on higher-end machines. So I didn't hesitate long in picking up Karnaaj Rally as soon as I learned of its existence. It was a wise choice.
Karnaaj Rally is a top-down racer where you are equipped with mines and rockets, and have several levels of upgrades available to your tires (grip), engine (speed), and armor (durability). First you get to choose your (entirely forgettable) racer persona, and you get a brief intro to the game's upgrade -> race -> win -> upgrade cycle.
Your career starts off in the prehistoric era (Flintstone cars!); then you make your way to the present, racing a championship set of five races in each era. I'm not sure what the reason for this is - I assume the developers wanted to present you with more car options. You can choose from a heavy cruiser, a zippy lightweight and a medium all-rounder in each era - they perform the same throughout the eras, although have slightly higher starting stats; then use your cash to upgrade and supply the vehicle with ammo. You can also place bets on each race for some extra cash - they range from predicting the order of the winners to predicting that a certain driver will not be able to finish the race. Be sure to stock up on rockets to make that particular prediction come true...
As far as complexity and persistence are concerned, there really isn't that much - once you've beaten all tracks the only thing to do is start over - but the fun factor of racing is right there in your hand, compressed to a short, replayable (if you like that sort of thing) career mode. The cleverness and skill of AI players extends the lifetime of the game a bit, and the extra maps in multiplayer mode do even more.
The graphics are simply stellar. While the overhead view is just that, there is some clever faux-3D going on, a more sophisticated form of parallax scrolling that still screenshots just can't render very well. Suffice to say that everything looks as it should, and there are quite a few surprises added in (running over pedestrians, tire tracks left in the dirt, birds wheeling lazily overhead) that bring this title to life. Soundwise, the engine sounds, the tires screeching and the rockets zipping by are satisfactory - the music is hoppy without being annoying.
The obstacles in each track, the varied track layouts (not just simple loops), the addition of rockets and mines and finally the challenging and clever AI (they keep placing mines where you'll only see them at the last moment) makes the game last longer, but in the end it will not take you long to complete the game. In its simplicity the game is a lot of fun however, and you can always choose to make things harder by choosing a different car this time around; I for one will return to it often for a quick fix of battle racing. The 10 dollar price tag on Karnaaj Rally is also a strong enticement. In the end there is really only one question: who, or what, is Karnaaj and why is the game named after him/it?
I mean, why didn't they just call it Carnage?