Today on Games You Probably Haven’t Played, we have Myth Makers: Super Kart GP.
Developed by Data Design Interactive and published by Conspiracy Entertainment, it was released on December 7, 2007. In addition to being on the Wii, this game was also released for the PC and PS2. Two other games starring the Myth Makers were also released for the Wii and PS2. They were Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland and Myth Makers: Orbs of Doom. As such, this game is actually part of a franchise.
Now, I’m sure this is going to shock you all to no end, but Myth Makers: Super Kart GP is a Mario Kart clone. Let me be completely honest. It is a blatant Mario Kart clone and doesn’t try to hide it.
There are three difficulty levels: 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. You can acquire items and use them against your opponents, which are acquired by running your kart through squares with question mark symbols on them. Given how aggressive Nintendo is in policing its IPs, I am amazed this game did not get called out for copyright infringement or something.
That said, there are at least two creative ideas that the game implemented. First, each of the characters – of which there are only 8 – has their own special move that they can unlock by winning a time trial race against a computer opponent. Second, when you’re doing free races, and within the circuits, each course can be run forward or backward and also during the day or the night. Of course, these features were to hide the fact that there are only actually five courses in the game, so it’s a simple case of trying to make it look like there’s more content than there actually is.
Back to the eight characters. You can only play as four of them when you first start the game. The other four have to be unlocked by collecting stars, which is accomplished by running your kart over them during races. Other than their different special moves and their aesthetic appearances, I didn’t really notice any difference between them in terms of weight classes, so this game is a bit simplified from Mario Kart in that regard.
As with Mario Kart, there are multiple sets of races that can be done – five, actually. And, like Mario Kart, you are expected to beat all of them in one engine class before moving on to the next one. There are two problems with that proposition, though. First, unlike in Mario Kart, there is no course map at the bottom of the screen. As such, there are numerous instances where a sharp turn might come up in the course before you have time to react. If you’re lucky, you hit a fence or a wall if you miss the corner. If you’re unlucky, you fall off the map and lose even more time plus your items.
Compound this with the fact that Myth Makers: Super Kart GP‘s turning controls seem to be set up in a way that makes it quite easy to not turn enough or to turn too much, and you have the makings of a very challenging ordeal if you don’t memorize the course layouts. About the only saving grace is that the game won’t let you suffer a misstep like that for too long.
If you get turned around and are going off course for more than a couple seconds, the game just automatically places you back in the middle of the road going in the correct direction. Of course, this happens without warning. So if you aren’t paying attention to the fact that it did that, you can easily go right back off course again.
Conclusion
I will make one final note. Mario Kart Wii did not come out until April 27, 2008, almost five months after this game on Wii. If the difference in quality was minor then it could be attributed to the fact that this game came out earlier than Mario Kart Wii. However, the difference in quality is not minor. With the original Wii being backward compatible with the GameCube, Mario Kart: Double Dash blows this game out of the water almost as much as Mario Kart Wii does.
As such, this game gives me little to no reason to recommend it unless you are a huge Mario Kart fan and want more courses to race on. It’s certainly not going to be a party favorite, even though it has split-screen. And if it’s the case that you want more tracks to race on, you’re better off just buying Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch.
