Wacky races: review by 2TUFF

Intro:

After looking at the CD-box i saw Digital Video written on there. I now got the impression i had wasted my money. Okay upon loading you are presented with the Future Pirates intro. The setting is a street with a shop in the background, a dog barks madly and then a gang of children scream and run down the road. The one lifts up the sewer man hole and they all jump down. The last character jumps down and bobs his head up just before he closes the lid on the hole. Then the screen scales forward and diagonally down to the man hole lid and it has the Future Pirares logo on it.

Everything in this intro was rendered and looked quite decent, but compared to the real intros and game its a shock at the differences.

The next intro starts off with Dick Dastidly and Muttly shouting at you then the name in Japanese Wacky Races coming up. They then come back on and shout and laugh at you again. now a really fast screen full of boxes with the different Wacky Races characters comes up. Each character etc is fully rendered and look so real. Then Dick and Muttly come back on and try and tell you something (i have no idea what the Japanese guys are saying). Then they laugh at you loudly again and then the screen clears. Dick and Mutterly rendered figures start to fill the screen (like pasteing effect) and they laugh and laugh with an echo and all running at different times/rates.

Now the game starts. You are presented with a like suitcase thing and you have a like mouse cursor to move around (in the shape of a muttly paw print). You have to click on the rendered suitcase to obviously open it up. Once this is done you are talked to by a weird zeppidy springy like character and stuff. After so long your presented with a menu screen, options are `RacesTV', `Trip', `Save.Load', `Help' `Exit'.

RacesTv:

Your greeted with a old fashioned TV set and then you get the best intro i've ever had the pleasure to witness. Its just like a mega fast cartoon, but don't think they've just filmed the real cartoon cause its not. The whole intro is coded and draw using the finest rendering equipment. Anyway it shows a F1 like intro and then shows the characters lining up on the race line, and gives you a full profile on each character/car in the race spinning the screens and vehicles around and with full blown great speech.

Now you are presented with a little betting area choice screen.

All the character/vehicles are show in boxes (all rendered) again all round the outside of the screen and they are highlighted one at a time at a very fast rate. You can Exit this or carry on, you have to choose 2 cars and bet on them to win (the winner is the character you use basically in the game). Every time you pick a character a new picture is shown it its same original box and more speech explaining something comes on.

There must be a range of different race intros as i've seen two so far. Any the screen rotates/scales and is so fast and rendered cars are whizzing everywhere and doing silly things like stretching and blowing up. The graphics are absolutely beautifully rendered and theres so much happening like blowing up bridges and cars flying to there doom and stuff like that. Basically like the cartoon but you have to see it to believe it.

Trip:

This option starts this weird game. Your presented with a steel door with a timing style lock on it, and great atmospheric music. You open this and there is your car, a big gleaming skeleton bones car. before you see the car the screen shows it from different angles and the rendering is great and the pictures really look stunning. Now you have to click on the car, doing so makes a bones ladder/entrance appear (rendered once again haha). Click again on this ladder and that little idiot springy character asks you to insert your character card (the winning bet you did).

Now your playing with your character who won the race, i played with them 5-6 gangsta guyz, and i was greeted with a screen of fellow racers. I had to click on each one and some offered me some goodys, like i had a camera and some hair tonic style stuff. Once you have all you think you can get you click on your character (gangsta car), and then after the Japanese speech and intro i had to give him one of my items, so i gave him the hair tonicy thing. Then it showed the gang driving down a street towards the screen, whilst they were singing and stuff. Then i was presented with another door? i opened it and then Pinelipy Pitstop greeted me with a bottle of Shampoo and Milk for sale. Now you have to pay her some money to get one of the items. I paid her and i picked the wrong one up, which was the shampoo. It was funny though as i drank it and she was moving and talking to me but i was high and see looked weirddddddd haha. Anyway you are supposed to drink the milk. After doing this i was greeted in a room by the evil Dick and Mutterly, they muttered some crap and then Dick layed 5 playing cards on the table. He then proceeded to turn one over, then it was my turn. I turned one over and he was very pi**ed off. He had a 5 and i got an Ace, so we must have played the highest card or sommit. Then he shouted at mutterly and he laughed so Dick smashed him hard and threw the table up in the air, all these stars were floating through the screen haha. We then were outside and i guess Dick wanted his money back which i had won. So i could not give him an object or nothing so i picked another option which put me back in the cockpit of my car. I picked the option special and the car picked Dick up and smashed him against the window screen hahaha he was hurt and moaning. Then it asked me if i wanted to save what i had done. YES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graphics:

Everything and i mean everything is fully rendered and looks superb in detail and everything. The best Graphics on ANY game i have ever witnessed so far (and thats alot).

9/10 For GFX

Sound:

Well being the 3DO with its CD and its own unique sound specs the sound was obviously good with the echos and tunes and speech.

9/10 For GFX

Playability:

Well considering ive only played it twice and had it half an hour before doing this review, i cant really say. But its quite playable, mainly to see what nice new graphics comes up. But it is really just a click and try game like a Alone in the Dark sorta thing.

7-8/10 For PLAYABILITY

Lastabilty:

Well maybe you will continue to play this after spending so much money on it. Its such a shame its Japanese cause its really nice and possibly a decent game, when you can understand everything. If you can sit back and play Japanese games then it might last long but for me i dunno.

?/10 for LASTABILITY

Overall:

Well taking into effect all the nice graphics and everything its worth a buy at a cheaper price. But better off watching it at a shop or a friends or on Video-Tape.

8/10 for OVERALL

michel.buffa@cmu.edu