Freaky Flyers Review

Developer	Midway
Publisher	Midway
Genre	Racing

Just when I thought I was truly getting sick of the whole kart racing genre, along comes Midway with a slightly bent take on it. Freaky Flyers takes kart racing to a new level – literally. The air racer features well-developed characters who are, more often than not, genuinely funny, a decent number of tracks and modes, and a solid, if unspectacular, set of controls. Is it enough to warrant taking to the skies? Let’s take a look under the hood.

Gameplay - Freaky Flyers gives you several racers to choose from initially, and though some of them are blatant stereotypes, the square jawed Johnny Turbine comes to mind, there are an equal number of truly bizarre ones. Each character has their own storyline, which plays through in cutscenes between races, and controls their own distinct airplane. A number of unlockable pilots and aircraft round out the roster, providing some incentive for replay.

The controls are fairly basic, with one trigger for brake and the other for gas. Other than that, you’ve got a button for machine guns, one for special weapons, one for looking behind, and one for activating stunts. Holding stunt and left, for example, will perform a barrel roll to the left. Stunt and up, a loop. It’s pretty basic all around, which is handy in the two-four player vs. mode.

The game’s primary mode sees players race in three-lap events through one of the 13 courses, each of which has its own theme, in an attempt to finish above a designated position in order to advance. Each race also has a variety of Tony Hawk-style subgoals that can be completed to earn rewards, though this really doesn’t work extremely well. This sort of free-roaming, ‘find something and do it’ gameplay just doesn’t work well when you’re pressed for time, and in a three-lap race, you’re almost always pressed for time. Attempting to complete all six subgoals will result in dropping yourself out of competition, which defeats the entire purpose since the completion of two or three during a race doesn’t carry over when you try it again.

On a more positive note, the levels are nicely done and have a great dedication to the theme each conveys. There are multiple paths through the level, though true shortcuts are fairly rare and the AI tends to stick to the main path almost 100% of the time. That dogged persistence means that exploration by the player tends to drop them behind, which results in losing, which results in having to race again… Expect frustration to set in quickly if you’re the exploring type.

The game has the standard kart racing powerups up for grabs. Speed burst, rockets, homing missiles, mines, shields – there’s very little that hasn’t been done before, and done better. There are some clever touches though, primarily the boost gate system. Rings float in the air that, when flown through, give the player a boost of speed, much like the acceleration strips common in kart racers. Completing subgoals can unlock more boost rings though, usable by the AI as well, which can help turn the tide in a race.

Every two regular levels are followed by a minigame level. These are extremely well done; full of humour and some tricky gameplay. One favourite is the “Bandito Attack”, which features some of the funniest theme music in any game this year. Any song that can work in the word “latrino” deserves some credit. That humour is prevalent throughout much of the game, and is one of Freaky Flyers strongest points.

There’s some multiplayer available, though there’s no system link or Xbox Live play – which is just baffling. You can play head to head with a friend, but cutting the screen in half makes the already miniscule characters just that much harder to pick out of the terrain.

Graphics - Freaky Flyers has a solid enough engine, with worlds that are detailed in a sort of comic book-style. The character designs seen in the cutscenes are well done, oozing with personality that really helps sell the comedy value of the script. Explosions of enemy aircraft are decent, and there are a variety of interactive elements within each level that work very well. Shooting down trees, knocking over precariously balanced boulders – the level of interactivity is surprisingly high.

There are some downsides in the presentation though. For example, the worlds are large and varied, but the racers aren’t. Each has their own look, but are displayed so small on the screen that it’s hard to really see any detail. In addition, while the game runs at a steady frame rate, the action is all going by pretty slowly. There’s not a real sense of speed here, which is a real downer for a racing game.

Sound - The Freaky Flyers audio package is inconsistent, with dizzying heights – the music, script, and vocal work – and ground-scraping lows…everything else. As mentioned before, the music is hilarious and really fits the levels. The script is equally polished, and it’s refreshing to have a game that’s trying to be funny actually be funny. That script is delivered excellently by the various actors, and helps to keep the characters, especially Mick Bungadoo, owner of a barbeque fast food chain in Australia that specializes in road kill, from becoming just overused stereotypes. The game gains the majority of its replay value from the desire to see all the cutscenes for each character.

The rest of the sound is fairly bland. The machinegun fire, rockets, and plane engines are all generic sounds that could have been lifted from any of a thousand other games. While the voice work is well done, the sound bites that are used during the races are extremely limited, so be prepared to hear the same few lines over and over and over, made twice as annoying by the need to replay levels repeatedly in order to unlock everything.

Overall Value - The back of the box promises Freaky Flyers will be “enthralling”, “alluring”, and “mesmerizing”, as well as a whole lot of other adjectives, all thanks to its wide variety of weird characters. Unfortunately, an equally wide variety of poor decisions leave Freaky Flyers as “average”, “uninspired”, “frustrating”, and “not worth the trouble”. Xbox Live support could have picked this game up a point or two, but that’s something that will have to wait for the next go around.

Review by Rod Oracheski