Some people say that Mario Kart is the only game you need on the DS.  I say that variety is the spice of life, unfortunately there just aren’t that many good racing games on DS to back this up.

However, one surprise came in the form of a movie licence game.  Surprising, because movie licences are traditionally bad, but Speed Racer, like it’s older Wii brother, is a breath of fresh air.

Saying this is a movie licence is really stretching things a bit.  There is no storyline to speak of and the characters will only be familiar to those who’ve either seen the movie or the cartoon series it’s based on.  However, it does feature the same amazingly over the top cars and tracks that made the film so much fun to watch.

Graphically, Speed Racer is as colourful as the Wii game and the movie both were.  It’s also one of the prettiest games on DS, certainly the best looking racing game.  Moving along at a fair pace, it chiucks colourful tracks and cars at you without breaking in to a sweat.  It just shows what other developers could really do if they learnt to program the DS properly.  The only thing really missing is the mad kaleidoscope of colour as you use the speed boost, but at least you won’t have to wear sunglasses to play this version like I did with the Wii!

The tracks are simply brilliant in design.  Someone is obviously a fan of the Fzero games and these rollercoaster style circuits beat even that game for their twists and turns.  They rise to a loop one minute and plunge 100 foot down the next giving you a great sense of scale.

But what is the game like to play?  Well, it’s great fun, thanks mostly to a decent fighting system.  Yes, I said fighting.  In cars.  The ‘Car Fu’ from the film has made it in to this game and it works well.  It’s a cut down version of the Wii, mainly because of the lack of buttons or motion sensing, but it actually seems to work better anyway.  It’s now so much easier to perform the tricks needed to gain boost at high speed and the car fu itself is a matter of pressing a button when it moves to the middle of the screen (a bit like a golf game).  It means that even my 5 year old can play this game, while it still has some challenge and refinement for older players in getting the timing just right or doing one more trick before you land.

Other than this, it’s pretty much a race to the finish, unlocking new tracks, cars and drivers as you get 1st place.  In the first set of races you’ll probably do this quite often.  This is useful to younger players who will have no trouble with the first set of tracks and to older players who can quickly unlock more tracks to play on and more characters to make things interesting.  Later on the difficulty does get harder, but it’s still not that much of a challenge to a seasoned player.

Multiplayer allows you to race against 3 other players on the track, with or without the computer controlled cars.  This mode is great fun and knocking in to a human player is so much more rewarding.

Speed Racer is ultimately a simple racing game with some fighting and stunts rolled in,  However, it brings great graphics and track design into the equation, making it a great game for arcade racing fans.  For those who are sick of Mario Kart, this is the ideal solution.

8/10