Wacky Races (2000 video game)

Wacky Races is a racing video game developed by Appaloosa Interactive for PC and PlayStation and by Velez & Dubail for the Game Boy Color. It was published by Infogrames in 2000. An enhanced version of the game, called Wacky Races: Starring Dastardly and Muttley, was released for Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 in the same year.

Wacky Races
Developer(s)Appaloosa Interactive (PC, PS)
Velez & Dubail (GBC)
Publisher(s)Infogrames
Platform(s)Game Boy Color
Microsoft Windows
PlayStation
ReleaseGame Boy Color
  • NA: June 9, 2000
  • EU: June 30, 2000
  • JP: November 22, 2001
Windows
  • UK: September 15, 2000[1]
  • NA: January 15, 2001
PlayStation
  • UK: September 15, 2000[1]
  • JP: July 26, 2001
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multi-player

The games use the story and characters from the American series Wacky Races created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The eleven racing cars compete against each other across circuits inspired by the cartoon characters.

Gameplay

The game features eight ready-to-play vehicles and an additional three boss vehicles that must be unlocked. The eight regular vehicles (and their drivers) are the Buzz Wagon (Rufus Ruffcut and Saw Tooth), the Boulder-Mobile (the Slag Brothers), the Arkansas Chugga-Bug (Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear), the Compact Pussycat (Penelope Pitstop), the Bullet Proof Bomb (the Ant Hill Mob), the Turbo Terrific (Peter Perfect), the Creepy Coupe (the Gruesome Twosome), and the Army Surplus Special (Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly). The three boss vehicles and their drivers are the Crimson Haybailer (Red Max), the Convert-A-Car (Professor Pat Pending), and the Mean Machine (Dick Dastardly and Muttley).

Each vehicle has its own characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses, resulting in a wide variety of driving styles. For example, the Army Surplus Special has low acceleration but a high top speed. The Arkansas Chugga-bug, meanwhile, has a moderate top speed but very good handling.

As in Mario Kart, each competitor has abilities and weapons to fight their way to first place (such as bubble gum, exploding pumpkins, and land mines). The player must accumulate floating pink coins, called Wacky Tokens, scattered around the tracks in order to use their vehicle's specific abilities. These abilities are divided into three categories: defense, speed, and attack.

At the end of the championship mode for the first time, the player has access to the Mean Machine, driven by Dick Dastardly and Muttley, with superior gadgets.

The game has four game modes: Time Trial, Championship, Multiplayer, and Super Gadgets. The latter offers a detailed list of all the gadgets available in the game.

Reception

The PC version received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[5] In Japan, where the PlayStation version was ported for release under the name Chiki Chiki Machine Mō Race (チキチキマシン猛レース, Chiki Chiki Mashin Mō Rēsu) on July 26, 2001, followed by the Game Boy Color version on November 22, 2001,[15] Famitsu gave the former a score of 21 out of 40.[7]

References
  1. "UK releases". Eurogamer.net. 2000-09-15. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  2. "Wacky Races for Game Boy Color". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  3. "Wacky Races for PC". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  4. "Wacky Races for PlayStation". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 1, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  5. "Wacky Races for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
  6. Huey, Christian. "Wacky Races (GBC) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
  7. "チキチキマシン猛レース [PS]". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  8. Provo, Frank (June 26, 2000). "Wacky Races Review (GBC)". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
  9. Nix, Marc (June 13, 2000). "Wacky Races (GBC)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  10. Lopez, Vincent (February 5, 2001). "Wacky Races (PC)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  11. pilou (August 11, 2000). "test: Les Fous du Volant". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Webedia. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  12. "Wacky Races (GBC)". Nintendo Power. Vol. 133. Nintendo of America. June 2000.
  13. Bickham, Al (November 2000). "Wacky Races". Official UK PlayStation Magazine. No. 64. Future Publishing. p. 132. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  14. Hill, Steve (November 2000). "Wacky Races". PC Zone. No. 95. Dennis Publishing. p. 80. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  15. "チキチキマシン猛レース (ゲームボーイ カラー版) [ゲームボーイ]". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. Archived from the original on March 28, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
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