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Posted on July 29th, 2005 - 3161 Reads

Rated Teen Freaky Flyers GameCube Review

-- Written by Clark Kent Nielsen



 Kart racers, the lofty racing games with lots of weapons. You probably already own at least one. But what you might not own is a kart racer that replaces the karts with airplanes. Sure, this idea was tried with Diddy Kong Racing, but -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- a strictly aviation game (with kart racing gameplay) has never been done before. Welcome, Freaky Flyers. Is it as fun as it sounds, or is it headed for a crash landing? (mandatory bad pun)

Freaky Flyers takes the basis of what a kart racer is and brings it into the world of aviation. You'll fly through some rather interesting locales against nine other opponents, all the while shooting them down with your default machine gun or picking up power-ups along the way. Initially, you might think there wouldn't be much interaction between players, being such an open flying game and all, but it really does work. The courses are still big and brimming with alternate paths and other things to do. Each level has six sub-goals (i.e. collecting items or shooting down objects) that can be completed to either open up boost "highways" or give you extra weapon slots. These highways become crucial to winning. The problem is, once you've opened up a highway, the AI can use it and will drop a bunch of mines in the way. They're clever, little buggers that offer a real challenge for once. Maybe a bit too challenging for some. The game is a challenge, yes, but not so much frustrating. Each time you play a level, you get slightly closer to beating it, so the game doesn't feel like it's pushing you backwards but rather gradually giving in to your adapting skill level. However, some unlockables make you complete all six sub-goals and place 1st. This can be disheartening, and I doubt many of you will ever want to see it through

The Adventure mode is what the game revolves around and is played to open new characters, levels, and FMV's. It's set up really well and even has a few mini-games like defending a fort from attacking banditos. The game prides itself on having 12 courses, but four of these are mini-games, resulting in a mere eight tracks, which is half what you can find in Mario Kart. But my biggest gripe is that the game will only let you interact with what it wants you to interact with, usually just what's part of the sub-goals. Would you like to crash through that window or shoot up that house? Well, too bad! Freaky Flyers could have really used a taste of Smashing Drive (despite how dumb that game was) since virtually nothing can be destroyed. I like carnage!

The controls could have used some tweaking, as well. You can't customize anything. There are only five available setups, and all of them are uncomfortable. Each wants you to use either the L or R button as the gas. Future racing developers, take note: this hurts your fingers! There are a lot of things to take into consideration, be it barrel rolling out of a projectile's way or hitting the "brake" to do a steep nose dive, and it's real easy to forget these nuances while playing. It's also kind of awkward to pull some of them off, such as the loop turn-around that has you pull back while pushing the brake and stunt buttons. Depending on what setup you have, this can be as far apart as the B and Y buttons. Try pushing both of those with one hand. At least the airplanes fly okay, if not a little slow.

You'll put in several good hours before you grow tired of this game. Being a nod to kart racers, Freaky Flyers has a multiplayer mode, too. However, it only supports two players. Any more than that might have killed the framerate. I'm sure Midway could have pulled it off if they really wanted to, but... ah well. The dog fights are just one-on-one battles which feel empty and without direction. Luckily, the races remain intact as they are in the single-player mode, sub-goals and all. You can even race against seven AI opponents at the same time. While this will never match the zany fun of Mario Kart or the sharp competition of F-Zero, it's fun to break away from the usual and take to the skies.

In the graphics department, there are a lot of FMV sequences, all of which show off some impressive modeling/animation. Of course, these movies are really stupid, so you would never want to watch them repeatedly. The in-game graphics are decent, if not a little stale, but they get the job done and uphold a healthy framerate, even in split-screen. However-- the load times are ridiculous. It takes, on average, 20-30 seconds to load every race. It even has to completely re-load a retry. I understand that load times are inevitable and that the GameCube isn't all-powerful, but we've seen enormous worlds (Wind Waker) and elaborate race tracks (F-Zero GX) brought to life almost instantly. What Freaky Flyers has is pathetically tedious.

The majority of the characters are over-the-top and annoying. They sound like a bad cartoon. Some of the racers say funny quips while in-game, but you'll get sick of them fairly soon. The narrator, on the other hand, is downright hilarious, and I always looked forward to hearing him speak before each race. Freaky Flyer's music has its ups and downs, as well. While the race courses have fairly average tunes, the songs in the mini-games are very amusing. Imagine playing a game where you fend off a fleet of ships while listening to a song that sings about being a "man" and joining the Navy. It's really fun.

Final Comments: Freaky Flyers isn't a bad game. In fact, only a few minor issues keep it from being a true gem. If you like kart racers, if you don't mind long load times, and if you only have one friend, then Freaky Flyers is perfect for you. Those who don't qualify (and I imagine there are a lot of you), rest assure that the game is still fun and makes for a nice change of pace but fails to deliver the full excitement that has come from other classic outings. Worth renting. A questionable buy.

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