0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Ayrton Senna Kart Duel

      

Ayrton Senna Kart Duel is a kart racing simulation game named after the legendary racing driver Ayrton Senna who sadly passed away in 1994 after a crash at Imola, when the game is loading a dedication to Senna is shown.

The games was developed by GAPS Inc a developer who was active in the 90s developing for the Super Nintendo before moving on to the Playstation, they also published the game in Japan, while Sun Corporation handles the PAL release in France, Germany and the UK.

The game released first in Japan, coming out on the 13^th of September 1996, the PAL release was later that year with a December release the exact date is not known.

The game has not story just a racing based game so moving on to the gameplay, the game is split into four different modes, the first is Beginner this mode allows the player to practice on a beginners track to help them learn the controls.

The second mode which appears as T.T in the menu is the time trial mode where the player takes a kart and races against the clock to set the fastest time they can. The game also has a versus mode when two players can pit their skills against each other, a link cable is required for this mode however.

 

The final mode and the main mode of the game is Race, this mode has the player facing off against AI opponents this mode is divided up into three separate classes, S Stock, SS Stock, and A Stock. Each of thsese classes has three races and prior to the race the player will have the choice of one of four karts.

Each of the karts to choose from has their own stats showing the karts handling, acceleration, maximum speed and grip the player is also able to set the number of laps for each race with the choice of three, five or ten lap races. In order to progress in this mode the player must win each race in each class in order to progress to the next class, failure to win results in a game over screen.

Once the player has finished all nine races winning all of them they will unlock the final challenge a race against the legend Senna, if the player is successful and defeats he they will unlock his kart in the game. In addition to the game a memorial for Senna can be found on the main menu showing some of Senna’s career records and photos.

This being a fairly early title the number of reviews for this game that have survived have dwindled significantly over time with just the three to choose from. Review scores range from a good one to an above average one and finishing off with an average 55.

Starting with the best through which comes from Ação Games, the Portuguese publication praising the gameplay as great which makes up for the flaws that the game does have, the review calling the game addictive, but they were not without criticisms, calling the graphics not very good.

The final two reviews for the game come from German publications Video Games and Mega Fun, starting with the former who scored the game at an above average 63 with the review critical of the controls which felt wooden when using the d-pad, slightly better with the analogue stick, they were also critical of the sound comparing them to the Smurfs rather than racing karts.

Finally we have Mega Fun who scored the game at an average 55 with the review very critical of the game, the review opening with Anyone who dares to be a career optimist or daydreamer considering the variety of excellent racing games for the PlayStation with an unimaginative and loveless product such as Ayrton Senna Kart duel.

The review then went on to call the graphics drap and were highly critical of the actual racing which to the review felt chance when getting a good result rather than the skill of the player the reviewer concluded their review by saying Ayrton Senna would turn in the grave by the Schindluder (carrion) that is posthumously driven by his name.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who unsurprisingly don’t stock this PAL and Japanese only release same goes for eStarland.com and Amazon.com, and while Retrogames.co.uk do stock titles with Ayrton Senna’s name on they don’t stock this particular title.

As a last hope we head over to the co.uk version of Amazon where we find both the PAL and Japanese versions of the game, both in limited numbers, starting with the PAL version we find just three copies available at the time of writing this.

The three copies available are all used copies with all three unclear on the overall completeness of the copies, starting with the cheapest first which comes in at £9.30 once shipping has been added in this copy is listed as being in good condition.

The next copy available comes with free deliver and is priced at just 1 pence more than the previous copy but is only in acceptable condition. The final copy of the PAL version available is listed as being in very good condition and again comes with free delivery but is priced up at a much more steep £23.88.

The Japanese version of the game does have a few more copies on the market but still a limited supply, used copies wise again few indicate the completeness of the copy, with only one clearly stating information about the case and manual being included, this copy is priced at £5.68 and comes with free shipping from Japan.

There are a few new copies of the Japanese version available, one can be discounted with its huge shipping fee which is more than the actual game. The other two copies are much more reasonably priced and both comes with free shipping and are priced at £11.23 and £11.26 respectively.

  

Written by

P J Gibbon