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Freaky Flyers: Thumbs Up

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: August 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you like cartoons and racing, Freaky Flyers is a winner. The cart game offers cool open environments and a fun cast of characters, from the bumbling, movie-star wannabe Johnny Turbine to the split personality Myrna Bookbottom, who turns into hellraiser Margaret Basher when she gets angry. I particularly like Tracy Torpedoes, a German experiment gone either terribly wrong -- or depending on your taste -- amazingly right.

As much as the characters are neat, the real meat of this game is the racing, which is flat out challenging. The goal of Freaky Flyers is simple: Win the race. The game kicked my butt more than once as I worked to figure out the best way to avoid running into trees or pasting myself into canyon walls. There are plenty of powerups and surprises throughout that make getting into the front of the flying pack easier, once you know where they are and how to use them. Some powerups can be won by flying through them, others require very controlled target shooting.

The first level, Bigfoot Mountain, pits flyers against a gnarly twisting canyon bristling with pine trees, villages, dams, waterfalls and tunnels. The program won't let you fly over obstacles, so it takes some real skill in tight corners. The graphics are solid here, as long as you don't get too far off the main course, where things get a little sketchy. I tried flying close to several bigfoot creatures and they weren't quite prepared for me. They kept jumping up and down in an odd, rigid way. Meanwhile, I was running 9th in the race and losing bigtime. At the end of the game, the announcer told me in a kindly but firm tone to put down my controller and step away from the screen.

Luckily, I didn't take his advice. Level 2 took me to Coyote Canyon, another curvy raceway where the speed picks up in a big way. Powerups ripped by and I found myself under attack from other flyers more often. Every plane has unlimited gatling guns, so squeezing off shots isn't associated with the usual problem of where to find more ammo. Some powerups give you rockets, which let you turn the competition into a satisfying flaming gumbo.

Level three, Bandito Attack, changes the scene completely. Here you have to protect a fort against heavily armed dudes in sombreros. If you spend too much time picking them off on the ground, their bases in the hills will shell your fort into smoking ruins. If you spend to much time attacking their bases, the pesky sombreros on the ground will... turn your fort into smoking ruins. This wasn't easy. The game doesn't give you any powerups at this level and you're almost totally on your own.

The fourth level, Thugsville Chicago, gets more complex and brings in sub characters while notching up the race speed even more. The urban landscape provides tricky canyons of apartment buildings with clothes lines, burning homes (which you have to put out) and more stationary attackers. One subgoal is to get the police chief back to headquarters. Luckily, powerups are everywhere and smart flying rather than shooting seems to be the best strategy.

Level five takes you to an Arab scene that is mostly underground and not easy. I don't know how many more levels there are, since I'll admit I'm kinda stuck at level five for the moment. That's a good sign that the designers didn't build this game to be a throw away. It may look wacky, but the software is every bit as powerful as more traditional guns N violence or sports games.

The contoller is very responsive in Freaky Flyers. I spent a good deal of time learning to limit my stick movements or I'd go screaming off the race course and get hung up in a mountain pass. The music is good, if a bit repetitive, and there are movies locked among the levels that give you more information about the stories of each character.

Each game takes about 5 minutes to play, and if you win, they can be shorter.

Sound was a bit repetitive and I found myself turning down the volume.

All in all, Freaky Flyers is fun and challenging. You won't be sorry you bought or rented it.

Great environments, great graphics

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: August 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed this game - more than I thought I would. I was a fan of kart racing games in the past and was looking for a 2003 version with all the bells and whistles. This game has been fun from the start and has kept entertaining for about 14 hours so far. It has wonderful graphics, large boards to explore and race through, cool characters, multiple airplanes to race with and good sound effects.

I have a couple of nephews that have really enjoyed the game a lot too. IT'S A SAFE GAME FOR KIDS, but has some good tongue-in-cheek humor for everyone old enought to get the jokes. There aren't too many games out there that can entertain across the age groups like this one. Bravo!

Finally, an improvement on Mario Kart!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed something half as much as Mario Kart -- it set up the non-serious racing genre and Crash and similar, while fun, have been nothing but also-rans. But Freaky Flyers came along and introduced a number of things just right! The aerial controls are every bit as nice as the brief air portionso f Diddy Kong racing, the environments are varied and amazingly detailed (you'll LOVE the fort!!!), the characters and movie clips are FUNNY, and the competition is MORE intense than Mario Kart (for once! thank you!). The races feel close, and if your heart isn't pounding by the end of the race, you're doing something wrong. I've been playing this non-stop for a few days now, and I LOVE IT!!! :D

Great environments, great graphics

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: August 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed this game - more than I thought I would. I was a fan of kart racing games in the past and was looking for a 2003 version with all the bells and whistles. This game has been fun from the start and has kept entertaining for about 14 hours so far. It has wonderful graphics, large boards to explore and race through, cool characters, multiple airplanes to race with and good sound effects.

I have a couple of nephews that have really enjoyed the game a lot too. IT'S A SAFE GAME FOR KIDS, but has some good tongue-in-cheek humor for everyone old enought to get the jokes. There aren't too many games out there that can entertain across the age groups like this one. Bravo! Buy a couple for the other family members with PS2s.

Freaky Flyers???

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: December 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game is mediocre IF you TURN DOWN the VOLUME. The music haunts you and taunts you and will be stuck in your head all day. Don't forget to drop your pacifier because your in the navy now. Oh great now that song is in my head again. Saftey Procedure in case you come in contact with Freaky Flyers with the volume up: Remain Calm. Plug your Ears. Finally scream really loud and run. Just don't waste the money. Go buy a diffrent game.

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