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Fortunately, the Pocket PC also has some Mario Kart games (please check out the link to find out what Mario Kart is all about if you don’t know the genre – I won’t elaborate on it in here).

You have, basically, three choices (and another one if you don’t necessarily want to stick to the “real” Mario style) to choose from if you want to play Pocket PC. In this roundup, I elaborate on all of them, along with a direct comparison.

Emulators

As handheld/console gaming devices also had / have Mario Kart ports, it may be a great idea to try to run them under an emulator on the Pocket PC. Fortunately, some later emulators of (comparatively) powerful handheld and console devices (mostly the newly-released 2700G-enabled PocketGBA and the OpenGL-enabled PocketSNES) are pretty usable on the Pocket PC, I’ve also examined one of them, PocketGBA:

Pros

Free if you have the ROM image (PocketGBA is free)

Cons

Speed only acceptable on 2700G-enabled, hardware accelerated Pocket PC’s

In no way so spectacular as the other two “real” Mario Kart clones

Other console platforms (for example SNES) also had their Mario Kart clones; for example, SNES had Super Mario Kart. I didn’t have the chance to test it because I only have the GBA-specific Mario Kart ROM’s.

Crazy Kart 1.03 by Int13

(current version 1.04; tested version 1.03 (I could only access the trial, which is version 1.03). Version 1.04 doesn’t seem to have anything over 1.03 except for some bugfixes.)

This is a good remake of the original game with some minor annoyances (for example, the lacking in definable on-screen controls). It, as opposed to the other titles, even has in-game music. It’s, however, isn’t anything to write home about: it’s mono, pretty short and, therefore, repetitive. Unfortunately, the add-on packs (the only contain new maps as targa images) don’t contain any new music either.

Pros

Gameplay is fast

Freely accessible add-on courses (albeit only four of the six are loadable)

Cons

Not compatible with any VGA devices (tested on three – none worked)

No steering on-screen controls

Map loading is VERY slow, even on fast devices

Note that, albeit the author of the game announced being working on part two, it has never been released.

MicroQuad 1.1 by viex games

This is another remake of the classic title. The developer, viex games, is known for a lot of quality, multiplatform titles (see for example their latest quality release, Gold Miner Joe) – MicroQuad is another example of these titles.

What distinguishes this game from the rest is, first, the multiplayer support. The multiplayer mode in MicroQuad 1.1 is really good – mainly that’s what makes this title definitely better than Crazy Kart. Both Palm OS and Pocket PC-based multiplayer is supported (Symbian doesn’t seem to be supported, multiplayer-wise). The two platforms aren’t, unfortunately, interoperable – that is, a, say, Bluetooth-enabled Palm OS T|3 device won’t be able to play Pocket PC’s via a BT PAN network and vice versa.

As the Pocket PC multiplayer is TCP/IP-based, it works over a several types of networks. I’ve tested the game with both Bluetooth PAN and Wi-Fi peer-to-peer connections (the latter is what you need to use when there’s no support for BT PAN in your device) – all worked. I’ve been able to play games between any of my Pocket PC’s over both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

In order to play multiplayer games, only one game (the one running on the hosting device) needs to be registered; the other(s) may be unregistered, demo devices. This is certainly good news for casual players (ones that want to quickly deploy the demo of the game on the Pocket PC’s of other people to play, without being forced to purchase the game for them too).

Unfortunately, there’re some bugs in the multiplayer mode. Sometimes (in about 5% of the cases) the game would just exit. Also, albeit, theoretically, the game supports more than two players at the same time, in no way (I’ve tested all the possible configurations) could I start the game with more than two players (only the client Pocket PC being the first in the client list would be connected by the server Pocket PC). This is certainly a program bug I’ve reported first to the author (this is pretty understandable, after all – not many people have more than two wireless Pocket PC’s to play mass-multiplayer games on). Hope it will soon be fixed. (I’ve offered the author my help and the ability to directly, remotely access my Pocket PC’s in order to run tests on them.)

Unfortunately, it’s only with ActiveSync-based connections that it displays the first three address segments of the local subnets; otherwise, with other kinds of connections (Wi-Fi P2P, BT PAN) you will need to enter them yourself.

Second, it has very well definable on-screen controls, unlike Crazy Kart, which only allows for acceleration/brake controls on screen (if not in auto-accelerated mode).

Pros

Great on-screen controls – much better than with any other title. You aren’t forced to use the D-pad with this game, unlike, with, say, Crazy Kart.

Unlike some of the other multiplayer titles, you can play multiplayer games with (all non-hosting devices running) the demo version

TCP/IP-based multiplayer, meaning the broadest compatibility

Unlike Crazy Kart, it's fully compatible with VGA devices - even the WM5-upgraded hx4700.

Cons

As of now, a little buggy multiplayer mode (no more simultaneous players than two). This will, however, surely change in the future.

Michael Schumacher Racing World Kart (MSRWK) by Inverse Entertainment GmbH

(current, tested version 1.46; the homepage of the developer is German-only but definitely worth checking out)

This game is hardly a “simple” remake of Mario Kart. It’s more of a self-standing, high-quality 3D title. As it’s still bears the most resemblance to Mario Kart from the list of the other Pocket PC racing titles listed for example here, I’ve decided to include it in the test, while leaving out titles for example the otherwise excellent Motocross Stunt Racer (see review here) because they’re even more different from the “classic” Mario Kart style.

Pros

a real 3D title, unlike the “simple” Mario Kart clones. However, it may be also considered its drawback, especially by younger players.

Cons

While Crazy Kart and MicroQuad runs on any (slow) device, you’d better run MSRWK on fast(er) devices

Not as appealing to little children as “real” Mario Kart clones

Feature and comparison chart

Available here, in the blog version of the article. Sorry for the need to click; there is no table support in the forum engine and, therefore, can’t include it in here. Make sure you scroll down for the chart.

Verdict

My personal favorite of all these titles is MicroQuad because of the excellent on-screen controls and support for multiplayer modes.

Crazy Kart comes as second; I, however, certainly prefer MicroQuad to it because of the lack of multiplayer capabilities of the former and the much worse controllability of Crazy Kart.

MSRWK, while indeed being a good racing game, in my opinion, too “heavy” a title. Not really meant for some quick Mario Kart runs but for die-hard 3D racing fans. The latter, however, may want to decide for a 2700G-enabled racer on the x50v/x51v; for example, GeoRally EX.

Other sources of information

Which is the best PPC Racing Game available? – this thread list all the available racing games two years ago, not only Mario Kart clones.

Crazy Kart review by PocketMatrix / PocketGamer (also see this thread). Note that this pretty bad review discusses an earlier, buggier version. However, some of what it states (for example, the lack of really configurable on-screen controllers) is still topical.

The Definitive Multiplayer PPC Game Roundup

The Games subcategory in my Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine blog

A Roundup of All Pocket PC Games Part I

Discussions of this article

PocketGamer (with sponge's comments!)

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