The battle-racing genre is not exactly a subset of games which has sewn competition in the past five or six years. Mario Kart pretty much invented it and, after an initial battle between contenders like Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Bandicoot, remains the only one that's still around and has monopolized the genre. And who can argue? The Nintendo favorite has amazing staying power -- me and my friends still play Mario Kart drinking games whenever we work up the ambition to dust off our Nintendo 64. How many games can compete with that?
Enter Blur, a game trying to take what is characteristically a cartoonish, kid-friendly style of play and turning it into a neon-drenched, Need for Speed-esque racer with real cars and flashy weapons. On paper the idea sounds worse than the very car-wrecks the game aims to create, but an early beta key courtesy of Bitmob allowed me to test-drive the experience myself. Surprisingly, a pretty great game is forged out of the combination of some clever ideas, and hearing actual metal crinkle every time you get hit instead of Luigi's hoarse "ho-ho!" over the slip of a banana.
If you don't know the ins and outs of the full game already, head over to the Bitmob Mega-Preview for all the nitty-gritty. The beta itself currently features four tracks and a small handful of cars (about 3 cars in each of 3 classes). It's an online multi-player beta only, but it only takes a few laps around the track to discover that's where the meat of this game is going to lie. Don't be fooled: the largest appeal of Blur over Mario Kart is not the slick visuals or getting to hop into a BMW M3. Rather, it's the 20 player online shitfest that multi-player can quickly become.
"Shitfest" may be a bit rash - the opening moments of any race that pits 20 cars three feet from each other is bound to conclude in mayhem. Typically the first 10 or 20 seconds of the race thin out the pack, however, and soon you find yourself battling amongst a few local vehicles. I'm still puzzled as to how the game keeps everything exciting yet fair, but it works. Usually when I fell behind in the pack, I always felt like I had a fair chance to get back into the lead, and when I was in the top three I always felt terribly insecure but there's no doubt that good racing (and smart defense) can keep you there.
Car combat is surprisingly intuitive. Being able to hold up to three weapons balances well with the other game mechanics - not only does taking hits slow you down, but it drains the health of your car. There are shield and repair power-ups on the track, but picking them up takes up a slot and more importantly forces you to miss out on an offensive power-up. Hence, managing your car's health becomes a refreshing take on the hit-and-go tedium of Mario Kart. Offensive power-ups vary in strength and situational usefulness, but all are satisfying and can be hilariously fun to use on other opponents (note: not as fun when they are used against you).
It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the full game that already isn't in the beta. Certainly, Blur has some great potential for roommate-fighting and relationship-straining in a split-screen mode, except instead of red shells and lightning you'll be complaining about missiles and...well, lightning (perhaps as an homage, the Blur version of lightning is just as infuriating and hilarious). The greatest part about Mario Kart has been watching others suffer from your own devices, and online play doesn't capture that. Hopefully Bizarre Creations has not neglected what makes this genre so great in the first place -- and no, I'm not talking Rainbow Road -- but only time will tell.
I have to admit, for someone who doesn't particularly pride himself on racing games, Blur kept a smile on my face for an impressive amount of time. Still, I have to wonder how long the racer can stay relevant before its doomed to lurk in the Mario Kart shadow. To be fair, it does all it can to promote replay value: the online multiplayer features a rank-up system lifted straight from Call of Duty that allows you to earn cars and unlock "mods" for your car which essentially serve as perks. It works pretty well -- I found myself playing just to earn certain cars and increase my rank, but this is such a niche genre that it seems like the nostalgia of Mario Kart will always trump newcomers. Dedicated racing fans will find themselves more at home with Forza or Gran Turismo and crash-junkies seek solace in Burnout -- whether either of these fan-bases will make the switch seems unlikely. It's hard not to wish the best for Bizarre Creations, though, as they have most certainly defied the odds and any success they achieve with Blur will be well earned.
