i'm not beating the contrarian allegations with this one but here we go anyway. crazy frog racer is good, kind of, it's the pinnacle of shovelware and a blatant cashgrab in some ways but it's also shockingly high effort and it also has a killer OST from actual talented DJ's and it's a fun wipeout clone to boot, this is not some hidden masterpiece and i won't lie and say it's perfect, it's a cool game with some seriously major flaws that's tied to a pretty bad IP, but if you go in with the right expectations, i think you can have a good time here, you get a very solid electronic album out of it either way.

the game is a wipeout clone, and one made by people who clearly have a lot of love for the series, its got some pretty varied playing racers and the games sense of speed is genuinely impressive, you can go at some of the highest speeds on the system here and speedrunners could really break this game in half and it'd be a blast to watch, but the flip side to this is the games controls are very difficult and the speed is just as much of a liability than it is a buff, you can very easily fly off the track here and there were some particularly bad stretches here where a speed boost is very likely to just send you flying off the track almost no matter what, but when it works its a lot of fun to fly around this track at ludicris speeds, it's very cool and this being a wipeout clone really sets it apart from other, more generic kart racers i think, you really would have expected this to be a bland mario kart clone.

notice how i said "this track" though, the game kind of only has one, split into 12 variations and full of repeated sections, its like the took a more open track like something from burnout paradise and split it up into 12 individual ones with roadblocks, it's not very well done and they get repetitive very fast, sure there's some variety like with the bit near the beach or the sewers, but it is still just one real track with no variety, it's a real shame such good music and gameplay is wasted on having nothing to really do with it. you have a few modes at least like a battle mode and a chase mode where you need to outrun an NPC chasing you, which is very fun, no story mode or anything here at all though, the game is pretty sparse. the game also isn't too difficult if you go for the easy mode, though it's very short at around 2 hours to beat it and you'll have seen everything it has to offer by hour one, since that last hour is just a cup of every track in a row. the games other main gameplay feature is the weapon system, while you would expect it to be randomised like most other racers it's actually based on a currency system where you pick up coins on the track and exchange these for whatever powerup you want in the moment, between a few mines (the best items in the game), some very imprecice projectiles (the only one worthwhile is the lazer, the most powerful nuke is so hard to aim its a little useless) and shield and speedboost, the shield is fine but the speedboost you need to be careful with since it is liable to get you killed on some tracks.

the game is kind of ugly too, the jamster character designs (the company the whole thing and had dozens of other, very similar ringtone mascots like crazy frog and they had a very distinct character design vibe and style, you know a jamster thing when you see one and it's charming in retrospect even if many are gross), while very dated in a good way are like, very not appealing, i ended up mostly playing the fairy that i think was from another jamster thing? and the crazy frog, they all play different but the design's here are just ugly, same with the tracks, the same bland cityscape repeated and you also see lots of unfinished map, especially if you go too fast and fly off it into areas with no collision. the music owns though, tons of great music from what i think were UK DJ's and its almost all amazing, i'm not lying when i say this is one of the best electronic OST's on the system and you should fully expect this to start showing up in youtube playlists, it might even be one of my favourite OST's on the console! though i can't say i know any of the DJ's involved, people like DJ cash, DJ ACE MAN and the smiggler, among others, you can at least listen to the OST online and the game even has a jukebox mode if you just want to listen to the music with crazy frog in the background dancing, which would be great for parties, trust me, it'll be a hit. the game is very of its time, the characters based on ringtones, the music, the fact its a wipeout clone, its all so of an era that has long since stopped existing, it's a very cool relic and even if the character is poorly aged, i think this is super cool and the game is a lot better than i think anyone would ever expect it to be.

the game had a sequel that fixes the track issues but i don't know much more about it than that, it also got a ton of ports including a very funny DS one and a GBA one, though nothing modern, its cheap though, practically pennies for a physical copy on any system since like, who wants this, you know, so pick it up if you're at all interested. the devs, neko entertainment, are still around, unlike the crazy frog who has mostly faded from relevance, they've worked on vita games like pix the cat, nekoburo and the mildly infamous "best of arcade" series, reals will know that one, they also worked on tons of other older games like cover girl for PSP, the sexist psp game, buildabearworkshop, code lyok, some bratz games and the very good charlies angels for ps2, they're a dev that have their ups and downs, though more downs by many accounts it has to be said. CFR is not perfect, for many people it won't even be good, but if you enjoy wipeout and you like British electronic music, there's a lot here to like, and this game would be great for speedrunners i think, it's so cheap and short that i think if you think anything here could be appealing? then check it out!