Wacky Races

"Dastardly indeed"

With all the problems that it has, it can at least be said that this game is far above the crap dished out to us on the Psone by Infogrammes over a year ago. That doesn’t mean, however, that this is worth it. While it has absolutely fantastic presentation and a wealth of options, the main game just doesn’t cut it. For a game squarely aimed at children, Wacky Races is unbelievably difficult.

Most of you will be familiar with the show, in which a bunch of cartoon characters simply race each other across the country. For those of you who aren’t, well the game’s story is summarised in that sentence right there. Despite including an adventure mode with a hub (a la Diddy Kong Racing), Infogrammes have wisely decided not to tack on some cheap story.

And for the single player, adventure mode should be your first port of call. After a great opening title screen and quick movie, followed by some slick menu screens that get everything done with little fuss, you are finally thrown into the game. Unless you absolutely hate cel-shading, the striking cartoon world should amaze you right away. The car and driver themselves (Regardless of which character you choose) is superbly authentic and also extremely lively. As you drive around the (disappointingly small) hub area, parts of your car will wobble, flutter, twist and generally move around as if it were actually in a cartoon. And with the free roaming area, the fast, simple controls seem fine too. Then you enter your first race.

And you LOSE!

You lose badly. Now, the rules of the learning curve dictates that the first challenge of a game should ideally be very easy, or at least somewhat fair. If you can’t win your very first race, you should at least be able to place in a qualifying position. Well, without tonnes of practice you can’t, and this is down to numerous things. Mostly, it is the opponents’ AI, which is damn near untouchable. It is as if the racers are all rabbits on a dog racing track, all fixed to a safe rail, zooming to the end without any trouble. You however, will have lots of trouble, dealing with the massively unfriendly track design. Sometimes just when you think the race is going to continue across that country road, it veers into a barn or through some haystacks, requiring a ridiculous amount of 90 degree turns to follow. If you are too far behind the other racers to see them turn into this obscure new detour (this is likely), then you’ll probably pass it unknowingly until you crash into an invisible wall.

Or into another object. For a game that’s supposed to be based on racing, the developers have bent over backwards to make sure doing just that is as inconvenient as possible. The tracks are littered with all manner of boulders, big wooden posts, walls, crates… anything that can stop you dead in your tracks, this game has ten of them a second. Luckily, unlike the Psone version, brushing against an obstacle or even crashing into it won’t delay progress for five minutes while you struggle to pull yourself out of trouble. The slick, well balanced control system means you’ll be back in the race in a second.

And this is where the game picks up a little. The controls are excellent, everything feels right, every car feels different. You really do feel as if you are in a cartoon, every movement is exaggerated, cars will jump off the ground with little provocation, and can reverse out of tight spots in a jolt so fast, you’ll barely remember it happen. It’s this that helps you really get into the game’s cartoon atmosphere, when you’re doing well, it really feels like you’re part of the cartoon action. When you’re in the thick of it with other racers, and you’re bashing at each other with your comedy weapons (Each character has three personal ones to use, ranging from lipstick for Penelope Pitstop to machine guns for the anthill mob) it’s sometimes so fun it looks as if it’s part of a pre-determined cartoon sequence. The environments in particular help add to this, as they are absolutely stunning. They have a certain flat style to them and use searing colours to shade in everything perfectly. The environments are generic in their nature, but the attention to detail ensures that each track is filled with interesting hazards and brilliant set pieces. Most of them are just things you’ll crash into and get annoyed with, but the grand log cabins and industrial ships are still fun to marvel at while you’re racing around. The speed at which it moves is also shocking, with minimal pop up and absolutely no fogging too.

The outstanding aesthetics this game displays extends to sound as well. While the music is far from memorable, it is upbeat and slightly reminiscent of the show’s, and helps a lot to make races seem more frenetic and action packed. The sound effects are equally faithful and cartoony. The voice acting is great, with the commentator being on top of things and not coming in too often. It is sometimes hard to make out what the characters are saying due to the loud racing noises that go on, but the playful taunts and jeers of the racers are a nice background effect. And the bizarre range of accents on display are funny to hear.

As you can imagine, the cartoon laughs are even better in multiplayer. Hitting a friend with a giant mallet means so much more than just hitting a CPU racer. The frame rate maintains itself very well in these sections too. Unfortunately, unless your friend has waded through the same ‘training hours’ on this game as you have, it is likely they will become easily frustrated at the confusing, harsh track design. So it’s not as successful as it should be. Of course, if you haven’t practiced enough to catch the other racers, then you won’t be having any fun with the multiplayer either, making it a complete failure.

And it is possible to catch up to those racers eventually. With a lot of practice and patience you will eventually learn how to dodge those obstacles and pull off the ridiculous amount of U-turns you are expected to. And while it’s nothing special, the game can be a lot of fun when you’re at your wacky racing peak. But then it gets harder again, and you must once again go through the arduous process of training for hours until you can finally catch up, and it just gets frustrating. While there is a polished and frantic racing challenge here, it simply doesn’t excel enough to be worth the huge amounts of effort it takes to get to it. While Wacky Races is great fun at times, it is mostly just too cruel to like.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/02, Updated 10/23/02