First Impression:
Ah, Wacky Races. What a part of my childhood. I remember watching this along with Laff-A-Lympics on Saturday mornings. Now everyone thinks I'm ancient. Now that they've decided to revive a game kids today won't prolly know... Will I be able to have fun and reminisce the insane episodes and the randomness of it all? Will I find myself playing a decent racing game that will prolly be fun to spread around to other people I know? Will anyone under twenty actually pick this up? More importantly, will I be able to play as Dick Dastardly? Let's find out, shall we?
Gameplay:
I was expecting a racing game. You know. You're in control of a character in a car and you try to beat other racers. I was expecting control using the directional pads and have a camera angle akin to Mario Kart.
Oh man, was I wrong.
Wacky Races puts you behind the wheel with the entire cast at your disposal. There's no one to unlock. Everyone's there to begin with, from the Slag Brothers to Penelope Pitstop minus Dick Dastardly. Minus major points from yours truly as my one wish of getting behind the wheel of the Mean Machine was shot down. There are no alternate cars to unlock, no extra powers, nothing but an alternate difficulty setting. THAT'S IT.
The rallies play like an episode of Wacky Races: you have three tracks to race in and in the middle of the races, Dick Dastardly tries to stop you from advancing by sabotage and dirty sneaky tactics. In the game, these are represented by mini games. If you pass, you retain your race position. If you fail, you end up at the back, bringing up the rear.
Much like the cartoon, you also get powers. There's an offensive booster which helps you speed up and damages your opponents' cars, an offensive which has you poking the other cars with the stylus to damage them, an aerial power which has you flying over the rest of the cars and a booster that makes you zoom right ahead of the competition. You activate these powers by tapping the icon when it becomes available after you pick up a powerup on the track.
Everything is controlled via the STYLUS. Yes, you heard me. The stylus. You put the stylus in front of your car and move it in the direction you want to turn. There's no way to accelerate or slow down. Now I don't know about you... but that makes racing a bit.. I don't know.. Awkward? The challenege of getting in first place lies in using your power ups and passing Dick Dastardly's minigames of doom.
And the last stretch to the finish like... Oh BOY.
This involves BLOWING into the microphone and scratching on the touch screen with your stylus while your car goes on autopilot. Why? I don't know. It works. I don't know why. But it works.
Last words:
If I was looking for a racer, I'd pick up Mario Kart. I suggest getting this from a rental. Once you've played it, you prolly won't want to play it again... unless you're a big Wacky Races fan. Even if you are, I'm not really sure you'd like it all that much. This game is a once in a lifetime experience: Once you've experienced it, you don't need to experience it again.
I was sorely disappointed by this game. If they'd stuck to the behind-the-wheel camera and kept the powerups and the minigames... this might have been a good contenteder for Mario Kart due to sheer nostalgia power.
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Rating:
Graphics: 3.5/5
Alright, I'll give them points for retaining the classic Wacky Races look. The characters are done in a clean 2D during cutscenes and character portraits. The cars however are done in a semi-3D. Nice looking. The tracks however... are slightly grainy. They were trying to do the 3-D on 2-D methinks..
Gameplay: 2/5
Seriously. This would have been a fun racing game if it was done LIKE A RACING GAME. The top view doesn't do much for gameplay and controlling your car with the stylus was purely ridiculous. For Wacky Races, ridiculous is good... but that was a SERIOUSLY bad idea. The finish line stretch... SHEER. MADNESS. Horrendous idea. Once again, they tried to incorporate the touchscreen where it wasn't needed.
Soundtrack: 3/5
Nothing too memorable about the sountrack... but it was rather authentic. Points for nostalgia factor... and the fact that they kept the voice of Racing Commentator Guy. (did he have a name?)
The Look and Feel: 2/5
It looks good... the minigames were kinda fun, I admit... but apart from that, it kinda sucked majorly.
Rating: 3/10
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