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Super Mario Kart began what’s known as the “character go-kart” genre in the world of videogames. Ever since that game’s release more than a decade ago, it’s almost been like a development creed for a team stuck with a license: “When in doubt, make it a racing game.” We’ve seen these in all shapes and sizes across every videogame system, putting a wide variety of characters like Looney Tunes, Rugrats, Spongebob, Shrek…even videogame heroes from Hudson and Konami went four-wheeling at one time or another.

As the story goes, the one game that came close to being as good as Nintendo’s original kart offering was Naughty Dog’s Crash Team Racing released a half decade ago on the original PlayStation One. Vivendi Universal obviously wants to return to the success of that game design, especially since Crash is a multi-console hero now. In comes Crash Nitro Kart for the Game Boy Advance, a handheld-specific rendition of the racing game released for the Xbox, GameCube and PS2. In portable form, the developers did a great job on racing design with excellent attention to car handling, challenge, track design, and a ton of racing modes to increase replay. But the graphic engine’s habit of continuously slowing down during particularly hectic moments is too prominent to ignore…and is a serious downer to an otherwise great GBA kart racer.

Features

• Eleven racers
• Arcade and Adventure modes
• Link cable support for four players (multiple cartridge)
• Cartridge save (three slots)
• Internet rankings at www.vvisions.com
• Connectivity with GameCube version

Just like the console versions, the Game Boy Advance rendition of Crash Nitro Kart has been handled by Vicarious Visions, the development team that originally brought the bandicoot to the handheld in The Big Adventure and N-Tranced platformers. Though the development studio originally started in the Game Boy market with racing games such as Polaris Snocross and Sea-Doo Hydrocross, this is Vicarious Visions’ first Game Boy Advance racer…and the team’s first GBA design to utilize a Mode-7 engine for the game design.

The plot of Crash Nitro Kart puts Crash and crew on a remote planet where they’ve been kidnapped by the “evil” Emperor Velo, forced to race against the alien posse as well as Neo Cortex and his crew of cronies. While players can just jump right in and race the game’s circuits in Arcade mode, some tracks and racers aren’t available until they go through the game’s Adventure Mode. Here, players can either choose the good or bad side from the start; Crash is fighting to save the world, while Neo’s got other plans for Earth. Both teams have their own balance of characters and racer abilities, from heavy and fast to light and spry, so there’s a kart suited for your specific style of racing.

Even though we’ve played kart racers of varying quality on the Game Boy Advance, Crash Nitro Kart is definitely the one, apart from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, that had so much attention paid to its game design. The handling of the cars is really spot-on, especially with the powerslide in action. And the weaponry is well-balanced with a nice assortment of offensive and defensive attacks, most of which are inspired from Mario Kart, just retuned to fit the Crash Bandicoot universe.

But it’s the Boost element that really gives Crash Nitro Kart its charm, and makes the game feel more its own than simply a Mario Kart clone. In a powerslide, the racer quickly builds up a boost meter that must be activated at a specific time, and a successful powerslide can give skilled players as many as three linked boosts. This is where the champions are made; without the powerslide technique mastered, there’s no way you’ll be able to become Earth’s champion. This mechanic is mapped extremely well to the GBA’s button limitations: during a powerslide, you actually have to release the accelerator and tap that button to activate the Nitro blasts. It may sound awkward, but once you play it in action you’ll understand just how well it works in Crash Nitro Kart.

The Game Boy Advance game goes further by offering additional incentives to continue playing with extremely challenging tasks; to collect CNK tokens in each track, players will have to collect C, N, and K tokens scattered along the track and come in first. Each world also contains a “Crystal Arena” that challenges players to collect all the scattered crystals in a set amount of time. Other tracks have a Relic Race that requires players to race the track under a certain time, smacking into crates that will freeze the clock for the designated time painted on the box. Of course, there’s link cable support for four players, with a few racing and battle modes in the multiplayer features. And let’s not forget the Time Trial where players can rank their times up on the Vicarious Visions website through a password system.

But with all this implemented, the one factor that brings it all down is a sluggish game engine. As great as the track, character and weapon graphics are, the game is meant to move at a speedy and smooth clip…and when characters group together on-screen, it’s almost too much for the system to handle. The game chugs noticeably, and it’s not just occasionally, either. Any time there’s multiple characters boosting or activating a specific power-up, the engine just slows down. It doesn’t happen much, if at all, in time trials or during “boss battles,” but when most of the game takes place in an eight-character race, it’s just unforgivable to have such a fast-paced game slow down to a crawl in patches during the gameplay. And it definitely affects play during a race, especially when players are used to the timing of the Nitro meter during regular, non-sluggish play and must adjust their button presses where the engine bogs down.

We’re not sure if we’re ready for a revival of Showtime’s Dexter series, but it’s coming whether we like it or not. As the show begins to ramp up production, it’s also adding new cast members. Actor Katy Sullivan, a former Paralympian and Paralympic analyst, has joined the cast according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Sullivan will play the part of Esther, a dispatcher at the Iron Lake Police Station. As an actor, Sullivan has also appeared in shows like NCIS: New Orleans, My Name is Earl, and Last Man Standing. As an athlete, Sullivan is a four-time U.S. champion in the 100-meter dash, who set a U.S. record in the event at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, where she came in sixth in the world. Afterward, she worked as an analyst for NBC during the 2016 Brazil Paralympic Games.

The Dexter revival is set 10 years after the much-maligned ending of the original series. Dexter Morgan, once again played by Michael C. Hall, now lives under a different name in upstate New York. Cast members include Clancy Brown as the antagonist, as well as Jamie Chung, Oscar Wahlberg, Michal Cyril Creighton, Julia Jones, Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah, Jack Alcott, and more. Original showrunner Clyde Phillips returns to run the revival and produce alongside Hall. The show is currently set to run for 10 episodes as a closed-ended revival.

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Coming to America released 33 years ago–in 1988. A lot has changed in that time, and that’s partly what Coming 2 America is about. But that also means that the original R rating didn’t make as much sense for the sequel, according to director Craig Brewer.

“If an R-rated movie would work, then we would do an R-rated movie,” Brewer said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I think we still have a really hilarious movie, and we do push the boundaries on a PG-13 movie here and there. If you look at the first movie, other than the gratuitous nudity of the bathers and some swearing, it is actually rather wholesome; it’s got a fairytale feel to it.”

Brewer continued, “My job on set was to be the guardian of what from the original movie can be celebrated, and then what’s going overboard, because we did want this movie to be its own thing.”

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Netflix product chief Greg Peters, who also became the streaming service’s chief operating officer in 2020, says the company is poised to help lead the charge for further eroding theatrical windows preceding streaming debuts for content. Speaking with Deadline, Peters predicted, “It’s what consumers want. It’s hard to buck that trend for too long and I think that’s eventually where things go.”

In December when competitor Warner Bros. announced it intended to put its entire theatrical line-up onto streaming services such as HBO Max, production companies, directors, and actors were predictably not pleased. It was also not exactly a shock to learn that Warner was reportedly trying to offset that surprising move by offering bonuses to stars impacted by the move to streaming-only releases–one report had Denzel Washington receiving $20 million plus a backend fee, for example. In an interview, veteran director Christopher Nolan summed his feelings up bluntly, calling the move a “real bait and switch” and “very, very, very messy” and that there is “such controversy” because Warner Bros. “didn’t tell anyone… [filmmakers are] being used as a loss-leader for the streaming service.”

Noticeably absent from the complaints, Peters says, were the audiences. “We have created the most compelling collection of entertainment available at the click of a button that’s ever existed. That’s incredible for consumers and for our members. For us, as user experience designers and builders, it creates a challenge because across that wide range of choice, our job is to distill that down into something that makes it easy and fun and exciting to pick what you want to watch next.”

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The benefits of a VPN when using Netflix, Amazon Prime, or any other streaming service are well-known, but the positives a VPN can bring to gaming aren’t as obvious. While a VPN is never going to be able to improve your K/D ratio or help you reach Diamond, there are still some benefits to turning on a VPN before you jump into your favorite game. These benefits can be a bit opaque, so we’ve broken down exactly what you can gain from using a VPN as well as some of the disadvantages.

What is a VPN?

First, let’s take a step back and break down exactly what a VPN is. VPNs, or virtual private networks, offer a secure private connection for you to send and receive data safely. This means you can browse and use the internet without being tracked, whether by websites, applications, or people trying to access your network remotely. Of course, VPNs are largely focused on security, but they’re not typically used by people looking to increase their safety measures. VPNs are most commonly used for entertainment purposes.

VPNs allow people to mask their IP address and trick websites and applications into thinking they’re browsing from a different country. Each region has its own library of content on the vast majority of streaming services, and with a VPN, you aren’t limited by your own country’s selection. For example, if a movie isn’t available on Netflix in the US, a VPN will disguise your real location so that you’re able to watch it, even if you’re not in the country where it’s streaming.

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On a recent appearance on TBS’ Conan, Randall Park (Fresh off the Boat, Ant-Man and the Wasp) told host Conan O’Brien about his experiences doing a rare fight scene in WandaVision. In meticulous, self-deprecating style, Park told the host about the even more meticulous work Marvel’s fight choreographers had to do with him on turning in the performance you can see in the clip below.

“It was thrilling,” Park said. “I rarely get to do choreographed fight scenes… so the fact I got the chance to do that was so great.” But while the clip above whizzes by in a few seconds and after some heavy hits land, Park noted that the process was anything but smooth.

Park said the preparation for the scene began “weeks before we shot that fight scene” and entailed daily work training and getting the staging correct. And before even that began, the actor explained, the fight coordinator asked Park to show their team how he sees the fight scene playing out. Park didn’t give the details on what he pitched, but he cut to the chase: “I remember the coordinator, he was trying to be nice [but saying], ‘Yeah, no, that’s all wrong. That’s not how one fights… you gotta make a fist. There’s no slapping.'”

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Paul Wight–formerly known as the Big Show in WWE–made waves in the world of wrestling last week when it was announced he would be signing with All Elite Wrestling. Cody Rhodes believes he could be doing more for the company in the future, outside of his commentary duties.

During a media call for the AEW Revolution PPV, which takes place on Sunday, March 7, Rhodes discussed Wight’s signing on with the company. “I do think there’s a match, or two, or three or four and that’s just me personally because I know he’s able to still go at a high level,” explained Rhodes. “But from a management standpoint, I’m most excited about him just being in our locker room.”

Wight will be doing commentary for the upcoming show AEW: Elevation, which debuts on March 15 on AEW’s YouTube channel. Getting Wight to sign on wasn’t difficult. “There wasn’t a long negotiation process simply because he wants to be here,” Rhodes said. “Very much so. And he wants to be here in a different capacity, as far as announcing and commentary goes with Elevation.”

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A proposed bill before the Arizona House of Representatives could have big implications for Epic Games’ legal battle against Apple and Google over Fortnite. If it is ultimately passed into law, it could create another facet for the ongoing litigation between the software giants.

The Verge reports that an amendment to Arizona’s HB2005 prevents app stores in the state from forcing developers to use their preferred payment system. In practice, that would mean that Apple and Google can’t require Epic Games or other software developers to go through their own proprietary payment systems for in-app purchases.

The legislation places the restriction on stores exceeding 1 million downloads, which would include Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store, and bars those companies from retaliating against developers who use third-party payment systems. It also applies to state residents, keeping them from being required to use exclusive payment methods. It carves out an exemption for game consoles and other “special-purpose devices.”

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American Horror Stories, the official AHS spinoff, will give us 16 standalone episodes. Ryan and Greg list their top theories on possible storylines for the new series.