In terms of atmosphere, Epic Racers does very well, just like Super Mario Kart. The style of Epic Racers is clearly different, but absolutely successful. The characters come from all over the world and I have to admit that I have no idea who they are supposed to be, except for Jesus of course. The levels aren’t as colorful and gimmicky as in SMK or Parigo Kart. Instead, you have nice interesting worlds, some of which have a spiritual touch. The sky world in particular stands out extremely positively. The Dragon Ball inspired track is also quite cool.

The graphics of Epic Racers are actually better than Super Mario Kart. Both the backgrounds and the driver sprites are animated in more detail. Not only that, I rarely had the impression that the game suffered from slowdowns. Also, the complete menu navigation has simply become a bit fancier and that should be mentioned.

A total of 8 completely new drivers are available. These also drive differently. You can expect 20 completely new tracks, some of which are really innovative. These do not necessarily play as you know it from Super Mario Kart. For example, there’s a track where you have to drive into a pond and then you’re taken to another point on the track where you just keep going. Even the new items in Epic Racers are cool, even if they just have different graphics. But it’s fun to lay or even throw a turd instead of a banana. Apart from that, it doesn’t matter which place you occupy. Because for every place but the 8th you get one point. So 7th place gets one point and 6th place gets 2 points and so on. The winner gets 7 points. That’s really nice, a feature I always wanted.

The music and sound effects have been completely taken over from Super Mario Kart. Therefore, Epic Racers has nothing new to offer here. Nevertheless, the SMK music is of course very good. But there is still a small deduction, because it is completely recycled music.

Oh yeah, all the things I disliked about the Super Mario Kart controls have been corrected in Epic Racers. There is less need for drifting. The controls are less wobbly, which just feels a lot more comfortable while driving. Drifting can and should still be done, of course, depending on your character, but it’s not as overused as in Super Parigo Kart. The controls are also more comfortable in Epic Racers, because the complete level designs are not as tight as in SMK. You simply don’t get stuck on every freaking edge and lose 4 places. There are hardly any nasty corners and edges here, which is great.

Epic Racers is definitely a lot of fun. Easy mode is actually very easy. Normal is really average and Hard is hard. At least for me. I could imagine that some of the hardcore SMK fans may find Epic Racers too easy. In general, all the ideas and the design are somehow consistent and offer a very attractive racing game. The characters, the items, everything is somehow quite funny and nicely designed. Especially the tracks and ideas actually offer something new, I haven’t seen anything like this in other romhacks and even less in the original.

Maybe I’m crazy, but I think Epic Racers is a bit better than Super Mario Kart. The 3 hackers have touched up quite a few aspects of the original to my liking. A favorable coincidence! Less drift-heavy, better track design, no edges to get stuck on, points for every place. I can absolutely recommend it.

Atmosphere / Story: 4 / 5 — Graphics: 5 / 5 — Game mechanics / Gameplay: 4.75 / 5 — Music and SFX: 3.75 / 5 — Controls: 5 / 5 — Fun factor: 4.25 / 5

OVERALL: 4.46 / 5

Full original review in German: https://snes-testberichte.de/epic-racers/