Weekly Little Big Planet: racing jones

“A good racing game never ends.”

Since level designers who don’t get how to create tension without life limits receive my derision, it is only fair that a designer who does get it, who creates tension in a simple level without using that threat, receives my praise.

Color Race. The title is unfortunate. It smacks of lack of forethought, like the person who signs up for a blog with only one name for it in mind and has to think up something on the fly because his one choice is unavailable. But who cares? It’s a great little race. Simple. Quick. Easy to reload. Not overly difficult, but still tricky. How do I know that it’s great? Because I felt compelled to keep playing it. Over and over. 99 times to be exact, with “just once more” counting for about thirty of those plays. I never broke into the top ten, but I came close.

Best of all, the only penalty for death is loss of time, not loss of game. I’ve been jonesing for a race since listening to the guys talk about racing games on the Qt3 Games Podcast. This one hits the spot and will tide me over until I get the chance to fire up Midnight Club: Los Angeles again.

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