As Outcyders' Resident Ben 10 Expertâ„¢ - a title awarded based on the fact I've seen a handful of episodes, and now have a review of the really-quite-good Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction under my belt, when news of the recently announced Ben 10 Galactic Racing landed on my desk (OK, OK, my inbox) - a Ben 10 game in the vein of Mario Kart - it was enough to colour me excited.Â
For those of you who've never heard of Ben 10 - or at least never watched it, seeing as you'd have to be as observant as a brick to not notice the shelves full of related merchandise in shops - the series follows the adventures of Ben Tennyson, who owns a watch-like device (the Omnitrix, and later Ultimatrix) which is capable of transforming him into a variety of alien forms. Becoming a sort-of-cartoon super hero, it's then up to young Ben to use these forms in traditional style, by saving the world from the clutches of some evil alien/man/beast-type thing.
It's himself!
But for Ben 10 Galactic Racing, Ben seems to have decided to take a bit of a break from all that transforming, and instead has decided to try his hand at racing. Taking part in the Galactic Grand Prix, you'll get to race across 25 different tracks spread over five different planets from the Ben 10 universe as one of 15 different characters from the TV series, with Ben Tennyson, and moody Kevin being confirmed so far. A new alien - Fasttrack - is making his debut in this game too, while the DS version gets an exclusive character, in the form of one of the original aliens, Diamondhead.
Ben is able to use his Ultimatrix to transform into his various alien forms mid-race, and the other characters (which are yet to be announced) will use their own special abilities from the TV series in a similar way. All characters are able to pick up 'Omni-Node Power-Ups' (similar to the item boxes in Mario Kart, we think) and gain - we assume - speed boosts and the like, as well as their Ultimate Move "that unleashes a super-charged, race-changing boost of speed and power that is themed to that character's abilities" - kind of like the Superstar Moves in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
As it's a sort-of kart racing type game in the vein of Mario Kart, it'd be almost sacrilege if you couldn't compete in multiplayer mode, but luckily, Ben 10 Galactic Racing doesn't disappoint, with the ambiguously worded press release suggesting full four player split-screen support.
Ben 10 Galactic Racing is releasing on the Xbox 360, Wii, DS and 3DS, but we don't know when yet - make sure you keep checking back, as we should get more information soon.
