When Activision announced upcoming racing game Blur a few months back, I know that I, for one, was weary of monosyllabic racing game titles, and didn’t really think much of it. Then the first trailer hit the interwebs, and the initial reaction was the same for many people: “It’s like Mario Kart!” That certainly grabbed my attention. It did indeed seem to be a more grown-up version of the classic kart racer, combining fast vehicles with power-ups and abilities that are collectable on the racetrack. After playing a couple of races at E3 last week, I can verify that yes, it does feel sort of like a more mature Mario Kart—which isn’t at all a bad thing.

When it comes to racing games, I like over-the-top, arcade-style gameplay. Racing sims bore me to tears, but a decent arcade racer is good fun. Luckily, this means Blur is exactly what I want it to be. To be fair, the game doesn’t actually have that much in common with Mario Kart. The game uses actual cars, not carts, and there’s nothing cartoony or primary-colored about it. The comparison is easy to make, though, because of the aforementioned power-ups that you obtain by driving through them. Instead of blue shells and inky squids, you will obtain things like shields or energy bursts. With up to 20 cars on the track at once, things can get hectic, and you’ll need to defend yourself, while still getting other vehicles out of the way.



Defense is especially important in Blur because your car can be totaled, taking you out of the race. If that happens, you’ll be forced to sit and watch everyone else complete the track, wondering where you went wrong. This happened to me during my first race, since I didn’t pay attention to the damage that was occurring as I swapped paint with other cars on the track. It was a bummer, and I drove more carefully the second time, while still maintaining my speed and paying attention to both defense and offense. In the second race, I finished in a more respectable top-ten position.

Maybe the “grown up Mario Kart” label isn’t quite accurate for Blur, but the use of power-ups in an arcade-style racing game makes it especially appealing for me. While it wasn’t the best racing game I saw at E3, it also wasn’t the worst, and it was definitely fun. Blur will be out this holiday season, and may be worth trying out for fans of crazy and chaotic racing games.

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