Review by: Jeff McAllister

A lot of gamers have a soft spot for kart racers, thanks to the mad plumber and his plastic wheel. But what if you want something with a little more bite? Thanks to Bizarre Creations, the creators of the acclaimed Project Gotham Racing series, Blur gives those who want a kart racer with real cars, real environments and real attitude a place to get their fix.

The short and skinny is that you compete against other racers with an arsenal of power-ups at your disposal. Some of those power-ups are offensive while others are defensive, but each is useful in more than one way and always needed at one time or another. The Bolt is a three shot attack that can be fired both forward and backwards to cause other players to lose control; the mine – similar to the classic banana peel, can be dropped behind you or fired forward, Barge allows you to force other cars beside you off to the side, while Shunt is the red turtle shell equivalent that chases - and ultimately – slams into the target you specify. The other power-ups that you can grab are the Repair power-up to instantly regain all of your health, the Shield for protection, Nitro for a quick boost of speed, and Shock which sends out 3 pools of electricity that will slow down those caught in its wake as well as deal out some damage.

The power-ups may seem straight forward but there is an underlying depth of strategy in their use. Each player can hold up to three items at one time and can be shuffled back and forth to use the most urgent one when necessary. As the offensive power-ups like Bolt and Shunt seem to be used solely for attacking, they are equally useful for fending off attacks. Keeping various power-ups in reserve for when they may be needed is another strategy, even though it’s tempting to use them quickly.

The single player, which tends to get a tad tedious after a while, is broken up into groups that then split into a number of different events. The events range from the straightforward regular races, to destruction and checkpoint races, in which player will need to pick up stop watches and hit checkpoints to keep time on the clock. As your number of fans increases, you gain levels which in turn unlocks new cars for your stable. Each race, in addition to trying to place in the top three, also has you trying to garner a set amount of fans. Fans can be gained by drifting, using power-ups and completing fan runs and fan demands – which are basically mini-tasks given to you during the race. It’s a lot of worry about in what should be a simple kart racer with cool graphics.

Each of the groups is led by a boss character, which will have a list of certain demands – such as completing a track with a certain amount of time leftover or fulfilling a set amount of attacks on other cars – for them to be available for a one on one race. The one on one races are probably the best thing about the single player as if you do defeat the boss by either outracing or wrecking their car, you not only win their car, but also a gain new power-up mod.

The kicker is that when you do race the bosses, you can only use the provided car and not one of the cars that you have just spent the past hour practicing with. Thankfully to continue to the next group of races, it’s not obligatory to race against the bosses and you only need to collect the set amount of lights needed. Why “lights” are the symbol for success is beyond me, but it’s what you collect for races – three for third place, four for second and five for first and extra lights for completed fan runs.