Ben 10 Galactic Racing

My son just loves the many, cool characters, graphics, and fighting on these games. Definitely a good game for hours of entertainment on rainy, cold days or hot, summer ones.

My son is a big Ben 10 fan, so this was a must-get for the Christmas season.The visuals I thought were pretty good, not perfect, for the Wii. While not as crisp as you would like, there is plenty of nice Ben 10 stuff in here. However, the screen seemed a bit busy and crude at times on the Primus/Galvan and Vulpin home worlds without the richness/detail it deserved. In general everything tracked fluidly while playing, however, when there were animated obstacles (giant rotating fan blades in tunnels to drive between, carnivous plants to avoid being knocked out by, etc), the animation was a bit choppy (not the game play itself), which came off as a bit crude.However, the variety of backdrops made for interesting racing. Unlocking new tracks was one of the bigger thrills of the game.The game offers:- Plenty of tracks (but you have to unlock almost all, ehh)- A lot of characters to race as, each with different attributes- A lot of modes/options (single player, multi-player, different races and scoring systems/eliminations)- A lot of interesting powers/weapons to exerciseI and my son liked, besides the main races, the mini-race competitions, like the Omnitrix tag and demolition-derby Elimination games. These enhance the game, and my son enjoyed playing them with me (vs. against on the regular).The criticisms:- The computer racers are quite hard. I mean, really quite hard, as I had to work quite a bit to master the system to win consistently. You pretty much cannot win without mastering drifting, the offensive and defensive powers, and knowledge of the tracks.This is pretty much too hard for anyone 7 and under to master enough to race well from what I have seen, and detracts from the game for that age group. There should have been a difficulty setting. This is the single biggest error. Someone was out to lunch on the design team.By the way, even after you master all that, you won't win every time unless you get far ahead of the field, because you simply become the number one target and get pummeled (a few of the tracks are long enough with some secret/triggerable shortcuts to build an insurmountable lead, but most aren't).- Almost everything has to be unlocked, which meant I had to spend a lot of play time unlocking everything for my son.- Not the games fault, really, but 4-way split screen is hard to see as much as you would like. 2-way is fine, even though its a bit cropped- The semi-translucent null void tracks are difficult to follow what is going on through some twists and turns for younger racers, and require you to master drift to avoid constantly falling over the side (which imposes a time penalty)- There are a few bugs that occasionally cause the car to get stuck or otherwise penalize as unfair, and occasionally cause you to get turned around and pointing the wrong direction, thereby practically guaranteeing last place by the time you get things straightened out.The tracks are really nicely creative, with a bunch of interesting things plucked from the show, which any Ben 10 fan will appreciate. However, as you unlock the higher level tracks, you will find they are a mix of new elements stitched together with sections of track from the earlier levels. They are still all fun and unique, but obviously not as unique as they could be, so this is a corner cut.Overall, this is a really nice game. The biggest problem is either you need other "Human Racers" at the same level, or you need to be really good to compete with the computer. My almost 7-year old struggles can't really place past 6th or 7th place (out of 8) against the computer, so I think the challenge is a bit much.That being said, if you do have other human racers, this is a great Cart game for Ben 10 fans. It has gotten a lot of play since we got it.It would be 5 stars if it had a difficulty setting to ease back for the younger ones.

I bought this for my sons 4th birthday. I realized it would be a challenge for him. My 5 and 7 year old could barely play it properly. It's too hard and the graphics are too busy and confusing.

While there would be times where one would look at a popular franchise's success and go "Hey, I wanna do that too!", I honestly don't understand what caused anybody to conceptualize and release a kart-racing game with BEN 10 of all things! I mean, I would probably tolerate it more if it was a crossover with Cartoon Network characters like in Cartoon Network Racing for the DS and PS2, or if it was a show starring a character in the caliber of, say, Spongebob. But no! We get a Mario Kart-ish game based off of......Ben 10. What's next? Is there going to be a Samurai Jack Team Racing?Joking aside, this plays the rules of Mario Kart like a fiddle. You have a selection of cups (Though this time, you have to play each one in order), and you must play through the tracks of each cup, ranking in the Top 3 (Later Top 2 and 1st). The three-lap-long tracks themselves are laid out in the typical racing fashion, and items are available for the using. The controls are switched around a bit, but upon using them properly, they work they way you expect them to.Before I talk about what makes the gameplay feel bothersome, however, I must quickly address the character selection. Not only is Ben 10 completely devoid of an all-star cast suitable for kart-racing, but some omissions are noticeable anyway; how the heck do you make a Ben 10 game and not include his FRICKIN COUSIN, Gwen?! Ben's grandfather may be an understandable reject, but Gwen has been alongside Ben way more than anyone else in the roster. And if I recall correctly, some of these characters are nothing more than Ben's own alien forms.Anyway, the courses you race on feel nothing more than bittersweet. On one hand, they aren't offensively bad, and they can even provide some anti-gravity motions that hadn't been implemented in the Mario Kart series until its Wii U debut. Unfortunately, they are just not that interesting. According to Ben 10's universe, alien planets consist of shades of around three colors; the atmosphere is very bland, and many of the tracks tend to share hazards with each other. Add in crummy voice sample repetitions and sound effects that blend together, and you have a remarkably middling experience.

Great games for kids to play.

I bought this game as a gift for my grandson. He really enjoys it. It was a good price also.

Good

It took forever to get this to load - you have to push "2" to proceed but none of the information says that. Some of the processing seems a little slow between playing sessions. But the game itself is a lot of fun (very challenging though - we have yet to bet 7th place out of 8). Racetracks are pretty cool and I love flipping the characters in the jumps. If you have a Ben 10 fan in your house - this game is a must.