Mario Kart Super Circuit (Game Boy Advance)
Developed by: Nintendo

The original Super Mario Kart for the SNES was, simply put, one of the best games I have ever played. It was easy to learn but hard to master, very addictive, and a ton of fun to play with friends. As we all know, Super Mario Kart spawned numerous cheap imitations and lame rip-offs, few of which ever came close to measuring up. But the fact that the original game was so blatantly plagiarized only proves that it was (and still is) a great game.

The original game was so good that Nintendo themselves could not surpass their own creation, even with approximately 4 times the processing power. Mario Kart on the N64 failed in many of the areas where the original game excelled. The controls were clumsy, and the power-ups had far too much influence on the outcome of the races.

Thankfully, Nintendo has seen the error of their ways. The new Mario Kart is in most ways a return to the original SNES version, which is just fine by me. I am not particularly fond of Nintendo re-releasing exact replicas of Super Nintendo games on the GBA, but I have no problem with them taking an awesome game and building on it.

Since the Game Boy Advance has roughly the same processing power as the Super Nintendo System, it is easy to see why they went back to the SNES format… it was probably cheaper for them to just port the code from the Super Nintendo version and build onto it some new tracks. Still, it doesn’t matter if their motivation was to save money, because this game rules.

Mario Kart Super Circuit brings back the use of coins, both as a measure of your kart’s top speed, and also a measure of the amount of times you can be jostled or bumped by fellow racers. The controls are as responsive as ever, and the action is perhaps even more fast-paced than the original Super Mario Kart.

Anyone who was a hardcore Mario Kart player for the Super Nintendo version should have no trouble at all settling into the controls on the Game Boy Advance. The 50 CC and 100 CC levels should be a breeze for experienced players, but once you get into the 150 CC class you are in for some serious button mashing battles. Slip on one banana peel and you’re dead last dude!

Oh, and did you say you wanted some new tracks? Well, there are plenty of those, but the cool thing is that most of them are based in the same environments as the tracks from the SNES game, including the Ghost House, Bowser’s Castle, and Koopa Beach. The backgrounds and scenery look even more colourful than they did on the Super Nintendo version. Speaking of which, I have also heard rumours that you can actually unlock some of the original SNES tracks in this game. Bonus!

Unfortunately, the one area of the game I have not been able to try out yet is the multiplayer mode. This was always where the original Mario Kart excelled, particularly with the simple yet ingenious Battle Mode. Handheld game systems, however, are not the most conducive to multiplayer gaming. Particularly if you do not have any friends… who own Game Boy Advance, I mean.

But the fact that I haven’t been able to try out the Battle Mode for Mario Kart Super Circuit yet brings me to my next point: why the hell have they not yet made it possible to play Battle Mode against computer opponents? I could forgive this in the original game, but having skipped it in the Nintendo 64 version, and now the Game Boy Advance version is preposterous, and pure laziness on Nintendo’s part.

Mario Kart Super Circuit does have a few cool features that take advantage of the Game Boy Advance’s interconnectivity however. For one, friends can link up and race against you even if they do not own the game. (This is one complaint I always had about the original Game Boy; I never thought it was fair that everyone had to buy a copy of the game in order to play through a game link.) Also, the Time Trials mode allows you to transfer your times over to a friend’s game pak, where they can then compete against a ghost that duplicates your run.

I am happy to say that if you’re a Mario Kart fan, this new version will not let you down. Nintendo may not have broken any new ground with Mario Kart Super Circuit, but you know, sometimes it just works out better that way. At least they didn’t just cop out by re-releasing the original Super Mario Kart game. As far as I’m concerned, this game is probably reason enough to buy the Game Boy Advance system itself. Or at least .. cough cough…. download the emulator… cough cough…– Sean

Polysics - Hey! Bob! My Friend!
(Asian Man)

This “Tokyo new wave mutant” band will both blow your mind and kick your ass. (Simultaneously, I mean.)From the second you throw on this cd, the synth-punk madness kicks in like a slap in the face, and continues to pulsate forth from your stereo, refusing to ease up for the next 30 minutes.

Their name would seem to be an allusion to the analog Korg Poly 6 synthesizer, as a big part of their crazy sound is based in synthesizers and other electronic musical gadgetry. It is the electronic elements of the music that really stands out, but let me make one thing clear: this is NOT cheesy 80’s synth pop fluff. The music is very loud, and very noisy, but yet it all has a quirky rhythm and melody behind it. The manic synthesizers, distorted guitars, pounding beats, and frenzied Japanese vocals mix together to create an atomic sound that is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.

Well, perhaps I shouldn’t say that. The Polysics make it abundantly clear that they are huge fans of Devo, and they certainly do not try to hide the fact that they draw both musical and aesthetic influences from Mothersbaugh & Co. For the record, however, it should be noted that the Polysics sound more rambunctious and more wacked out than Devo ever did.

Hey Bob! My Friend is a compilation that features selected material from the Polysics back catalogue and makes the songs available for the first time in North America. It is a rather unorthodox release for Asian Man Records, but it’s great to see them expanding their repertoire… especially when they introduce us to something as refreshing and exciting as this.

The only problem with an album like Hey! Bob! My Friend!, is that extended listening to such an abrasive assault of in-your-face electronic bleeping and chirping can inevitably leave you with a bit of a headache. This problem might have been remedied by adding a couple of laidback songs on the album, but yet somehow, that just wouldn’t seem right. The Polysics are all about sonic overload, and it is their energy and vigor that makes them so infectious. Yet that is also what paradoxically keeps the cd from being implanted in my cd player on permanent repeat. — Sean

Monkeybone
Directed by: Henry Selick
Written by: Kaja Blackley (graphic novel), Sam Hamm
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, Rose McGowan, Giancarlo Esposito, Chris Kattan

For months I had avoided seeing “Monkeybone”, the latest Henry Selick film, which suffered many horrible reviews. While at the video store, I came back across it, and figured “Hey, the only reason to see the last couple Tim Burton films was the visuals. By that regard, this movie deserves the same treatment”.

And so I took home the ‘Bone. And I must say, it was worth my time, even if the film was far from perfect.

The plot of Monkeybone is ridiculously complicated and unrealized. Brendan Fraser plays Stuart Miley (S.Miley, get it?), an artist turned cartoonist who has just turned his hit strip “Monkeybone” starring a monkey with slapsticky, racy antics, into a television show for the Comedy Channel. At his premiere, he and his girlfriend, Julie (Bridget Fonda), have their time alone interrupted by people from liscensing and his agent, played by Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall. Julie is a doctor working on strange chemicals, also just now finding success. As Stu is about to propose to Julie, as mishap involving one of the liscenced toys causes a car crash, sending Stu into a coma.

Stu now is sent into a CGI/Stop-Motion animation nightmare world easily comparible to other Selick features such as the Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. This world is called “Downtown” and it is runned by both Hypnos (Giancarlo Esposito - “Bob Roberts”) and Death (Whoopi Goldberg - “Theodore Rex”, heh heh). In Downtown several things happen, equally complicated as everything else I’ve described thus far. Downtown is the land where those in comas wait for either death or to come back to life. As well, it is the land where the creatures that inhabit nightmares live. Hypnos acts as a sort of carnival ringmaster, and Death is the administration. In Downtown, Stu meets his creation Monkeybone (voiced by the usually brilliant John Turturro) who is an MC in a club. Monkeybone generally just jumps around and acts annoying throughout these scenes. He is more a pest than any source of humor. Stu learns he must retrieve an Exit Pass from Death in order to return. Of course, he does, however Monkeybone steals his pass and takes over his body. Did I fail to mention that meanwhile his sister was trying to pull the plug, Julie filled him with her “nightmare juice” to awaken him, thus explaining to her why Stu acts so weird when he comes back to life?

So now Stu is trapped in Downtown, and Monkeybone does all the liscensing and crazy antics that Stu was incapable of, all of which range between mildly and not funny. Frasers charm is wasted in this film, though his monkey movements make me nostalgic for the days of “Encino Man”.

Further complicating things, Stu learns from Hypnos that the plot to get the Exit Pass was a trick concocted by the nightmare creatures so Monkeybone can use the Nightmare Juice to create new nightmares to entertain the people in Downtowns theatres. This is fully unrealized, as unlike the weird trips you see in say, “Brain Candy”, you only see one persons nightmare as a result of the juice in Monkeybone. So now Stu has to retrieve another Exit Pass to get back for the final showdown between he and Monkeybone, retrieve his body and propose to his girlfriend. Of course he gets the pass - again - and the only real laugh out loud part of the movie happens, and who would have thunk it? it came from the usually despicable and incredibly unfunny Chris Kattan of Saturday Night Live.

Death gives over the recently dead organ donating gymnast body of Kattans to Stu, and for the next 10 - 20 minutes or so, you get the delight of watching a corpse with organs falling out and a broken neck run across the city, climbing buildings, dangiing from a hot air balloon, etc.. This scene is so over-the-top crazy that you cant help but enjoy it, even if they probably could have pushed it even further…

From here on in you can pretty much guess what happens.

Now that I’ve gotten over the incredibly complicated storyline, on to everything else. Monkeybone is most interesting in its Downtown world. Its another triumph from the team that put together the worlds of Nightmare Before Xmas, the creatures are both frightening, bizarre and goofy looking, the set design and costumes are fantastic. The real world direction is average looking, with no real flair. Of course, thats what you expect when you have a world like Downtown to compete with.

I’ve been told that the DVD contains many deleted scenes which are funnier than anything in the movie and piece the story together better. Its a mystery to me why they would have left these scenes out if they were so important. I’ve heard they were trying to get a PG-13 rating so they had to cut some things. This is unfortunate, as with some tweaking and better editing, Monkeybone could have been much better, even with all the complications.

Overall, I don’t consider this movie a disappointment due to my low expectations. Its flawed, but at the same time its interesting both visually and conceptually. Worth a rental. — The Pretentious Goon

Man or Astro-man?
with Atomic 7 and Cuff The Duke
Saturday Oct. 27, 2001 @ The Horseshoe, Toronto

Many of us were beginning to wonder if Man or Astro-man? would ever come to Toronto in support of their most recent release, “A Spectrum of Infinite Scale”. They had played shows on the west coast of Canada, and all across the U.S., but for some reason, they had neglected to drop by Toronto ever since the album came out over a year ago. As a matter of fact, they chose to invade stages all the way over in Europe before finally succumbing to the inevitable trip to The Horseshoe in Toronto.

The show fittingly took place the weekend before Halloween: the one time of year when extraterrestrials such as the Astro-men would not appear out of place. I would have thought that the crowd for such a show would have been a little more apt to don costumes for the occasion, but with the exception of a very convincing (and I’m guessing poorly air conditioned) robot, there weren’t really any otherworldly creatures around to provide cover for aliens from grid sector 23-B6-1.

If anyone seemed out of place, however, it was probably the lead off band, Cuff The Duke. Not only were they rather boring and average-looking guys, but their honky-tonk country twang seemed to be warming up the crowd for an entirely different headlining band. Still, by the end of their set, they had the people dancing and clapping along, in spite of their musical mundanity.

The Atomic 7, at least, had the courtesy to dress up before taking the stage. Featuring Brian Connelly, ex-Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet guitarist, they turned in a solid set of instrumental rock numbers while wearing some rather sharp-looking suits. At times the sound was clearly reminiscent of Shadowy Men, but there was also a rockabilly twist reinforced by the presence of a stand up bass player. I was surprised by the number of songs these guys were able to play, considering the fact that they don’t have any releases other than a lone 7″ (that I’m aware of anyway).

Also, they really take the instrumental thing to heart. Unlike Man or Astro-man, who like to talk non-stop in between songs, Atomic 7 didn’t even bring a mic on stage with them. One of the highlights of their set was what seemed to be a cover of the song they play during intermissions at drive-in movie theatres.

As impressive as they were, I felt kind of bad for Atomic 7, as they would not likely be remembered by many of the audience goers once they had been through the experience of a Man or Astro-man live performance. While the various computers and projection screens were being set up on stage, it became clear that we were all in for quite a treat.

With the departure of Blazar The Probe Handler, the Astro-men had decided to carry on their journey as a three piece band. I find it strange that in a band that plays instrumental surf-rock (very guitar-oriented music), the only two members who have been with the band from the start are the bassist and drummer. I suppose it explains why their sound has been subject to so many changes over the past few releases.

As a trio, the Astro-men were just as tight as ever. The sound was not lacking, and neither was the on-stage energy. They rocketed through a set that consisted of mostly songs from A Spectrum of Infinite Scale, mixed with some rather early material, much to the surprise (and delight) of the hardcore fans. They also introduced alternate versions of a few songs, including a sped-up and almost unrecognizable rendition of Junk Satellite.

With the necessary destruction of the EEVIAC mainframe computers at a show this past New Year’s Eve, the Man or Astro-man stage set now relies mostly on two projection screens; one of which presents a collage of video clips and psychadelic imagery, while the other provides a black and white mock security camera view of the stage. I had heard something about a giant brain in a tank, that they had been using on this tour, but it was sadly nowhere to be found. Perhaps it was seized at the border?

The Toronto crowd was also treated to an alleged first ever live performance of the international super-hit, A Simple Text File. For those who do not own the album A Spectrum of Infinite Scale, it is probably important to mention that A Simple Text File is a song performed entirely by an Apple Imagewriter dot matrix printer. Dot-matrix printers may be somewhat obsolete, but this in no way inhibits their innate ability to rock.

While the music was amazing, the on stage witticisms provided the icing on the cake. There was a running joke throughout the night where the band members pretended to get their Australian and Canadian musicians confused, and also a moment where Birdstuff ordered Coco to do push-ups for what he perceived to be a “user error” on his part during a song.

The Astro-set was closed out, as per usual, with several blasts of lightning from their home-made Tesla Coil, and although some people were calling out for an encore, you have to ask yourself, how can you possibly follow up such a thing? You can’t.

My only complaint about this kick ass show (and it is a minor one) would be the selection of songs that they chose to play. They may have been restricted with only one guitarist, but you know, a few more songs from albums like Experiment Zero, Made From Technetium or the 1000x EP would really have made my night.

Oh wait, actually I have one other complaint to make. You see, our night was marred by the experience of having our car towed for being illegally parked in downtown Toronto. I’d rather not recount the depressing details, but suffice to say, Toronto is a city of thieves. Everyone’s trying to make money off of you in one way or another. Don’t even bother trying to avoid paying the ridiculous prices in downtown parking lots, because you’ll just wind up subjecting yourself to more financials burden in the end.

Unfortunately, the city of Toronto is a necessary evil for fans of music in Ontario. And to be honest, any sacrifice made in the name of Man or Astro-man is a worthy one indeed.– Sean