Format: Advance
Genre: Racing
Developer: MTO
Publisher: THQ

For the tracks, GT Advance uses the same Mode 7-style graphics that F-Zero introduced back in the SNES days. For the cars, GT Advance uses 3d-rendered sprites. What's amazing, is that for all 48 cars in the game, there is a sprite for nearly every angle; as the car turns on the track, the rotation is almost perfectly smooth. The cars are detailed, feature working brake lights during races, and each one has its own set of 2 to 4 colors to choose from. The only real problem with GT Advance's graphics lies with the track/non-track textures, which usually look way too similar, making it very difficult to see where track "walls" are, resulting in many an annoying, race-losing crash, especially on the night tracks. Despite this flaw, the graphics are very pretty, and really show off the prowess of the Gameboy Advance's hardware.

I would be willing to bet that very early in the planning stages, GT Advance was originally going to be a Gameboy Color racer of some sorts, and that some of the music was written at this stage; half of the music in the game sounds exactly like original Gameboy music, using all of 2 very synthesized sounding instruments simultaneously. The other half of the music definitely sounds Gameboy Advance caliber, and is well-composed. Fortunately, the sound effects take after the latter half of the music- the engine noises, menu select sounds, and tire squeals are all digital. One issue is that of the engine noises, which are extremely annoying at red-line, and this is where your car will be most of the time, especially in the early tracks.

GT Advance plays like just about every other Mode 7 racer, including Mario Kart and F-Zero. The difference is that in GT Advance, turning too sharp will cause your car to spin completely around, forcing you to accelerate from a dead-stop. Also, each car has three attributes: speed, acceleration, and handling. The first two are nothing new, but the third one changes how fast your car rotates on the track and thus how quickly you can change direction. You are rewarded with a new car or mod for getting a medal in a race, for a grand total of 48 cars. The mods include new mufflers, suspensions, spoilers, and cpu's, among other things, and each mod raises one or two attributes of your car's performance. The gameplay feels deeper than other Mode 7 racers, but is still not anywhere near a "real" racing game due to the complete lack of physics and the flat tracks. I think though given the Mode 7 format, they did very well.

GT Advance is mostly a fun game that caught me in that "Just one more race!" trap a few times on the way to beating it. The title plays much like a mini-Gran Turismo; not as deep or nearly as complex, but it still gives you the satisfaction of driving your dream car and modding it up the wazoo. There are a few things that MTO could have done better: it's way too tough to see where the tracks are at times, resulting in a 120mph head-on collision with a wall. Also, the game lacks a save RAM feature, so you're stuck copying down a 16 character password every time you want to take a break. If it weren't for those two big flaws, GT Advance would be a great racer; unfortunately, it crashed into a wall just shy of that finish line.