Overall 8.6 Graphics 5 Sound 4.5 Addictive 7 Depth 6 Difficulty 7
8.5
And away they go! On the way out Wacky Races! Jinx98
Introduction Here's a light game that's not really too hard but not too easy either. I found this in a CVS as a kid along with "Harvest Moon Back to Nature" for the play station one and "Spy vs Spy", for the game Boy Color. Three games that clearly were not getting enough credit if they were banished to a corner store where you pick up medication. Since this a pretty basic game, I'll keep this review short.
Story This game doesn't really have a story. This game is based off the Hanna-Barbera 1968 cartoon show, which of course is called Wacky Races. It was inspired by the 1965 film "The great race". It's pretty much just a slap stick tv show where the racers are trying to compete for the title of worlds greatest racer as they attempt to beat each other out with car's built with gadgets, almost similar to that of Speed Racers Mark 5. The cartoon has a running gag, where one of the racers named Dick Dastardly and his dog sidekick Muttley are always trying to completely one side cheat with double handed tricks in order to win a race, but always fails and ends up dead last because of it.
Difficulty It's not so much hard at times as it can be simply annoying. In a championship race, you'll learn pretty fast, it's not good to drive directly behind a racer, as they can quickly drop bombs and oil spills that could mess you up and set you back about two to three places. Other than that, the computer can be really stupid at times, such as the stage that requires you to drive up a ramp to get over the lava, in order to not blow up your car and slow you down. The computer can't and won't recognize the ramp and instead runs directly into the lava and blows themselves up. Also once you are in first place, there is a good chance they'll never be able to catch up with you for the rest of the race.
Depth There is not a whole lot to this game. It's just a basic racing game with a few Mario Kart like elements to it. As you race though the levels, you'll soon end up with 3 W's for wacky in front of you. Grab one and it will give you some type of power up, between fireballs, speed boosts, ect. The stages themselves don't have a lot to them either. Once you know how to stay out of trouble on the track, it's pretty much a repeat until you finish the race entirely. There are also a few other racers to unlock. They are not too much more different than the standard racers you start out with, but one of my favorite characters requires me to unlock him first and I don't mind the game enough to do it.
Addictiveness So you would think with a game, that has very little to offer, this wouldn't be worth your time at all. As the saying goes, don't judge a book by it's cover. This game will creep upon you enough to keep you hooked for a good number of races. If you love knocking other racers off road, blowing them up and a good race to the finish game, it's well worth the try.
Graphics For a Game boy Color game, it's pretty detailed for the most part in terms of color, the look of the racers and the tracks they race on. Not much to say in this department, but besides it looks really good.
Sound Sound effects are on point at times. If you shot a fireball at someone you could hear the boom. If you shot a freeze bullet at a racer you could hear a chilling sound of them turning to ice. Music isn't that impressive however and is kind of standard.
Graphics 8 Sound 7 Addictive 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 12-16-13
Updated: 12-19-13
Review Replies: 2
6
Vroooooom classgame
Bummed because the DMCA can’t let you play games from the Mario Bros franchise (especially Mario Kart) on the website? Well you’re in luck because we have the most daredevil troupe to ever whirl their wheels (you know I’m starting to think if anything they are a Harlem Globetrotters type thing why else are their cars so unique, I feel like there was a missed opportunity considering that the HG’s got a Hanna Barbera show too there should have been a crossover, if only someone else didn’t own Dastardly and Muttley then it could have happened I could see him teaming up with the Washington Generals) that are the next best thing yes we have one of everything, the scary dude, the inventor, the pretty boy, the token woman (who got her own spin-off), The mobsters (also in the lady’s spin-off), the cavemen, the red baron clone, the Sergeant and his private, the red neck and his pet bear, the lumberjack, and of course the real star of the show…and his laughing dog too (who also got a spin-off, I know all the racers have names I just felt using their characteristics would be easier than spelling their names wrong, that announcer spoke real fast in most parts of the shows intro)….oh crap I still have to burn Wacky races for PC.
Gameplay and story: so as my intro strongly suggests after the success of Mario Kart it seems like everyone wanted their own racing game based on that and I’m not surprised that Wacky Races got it, but the best part of the game is that you can actually play as Dick Dastardly…but not without doing all the races as the boulder mobile, other than that there isn’t much of a story, unless the focus was on Dick Dastardly and he usually gets more screen time than most of the other racers...gee no wonder they didn't really get any development and were quite one dimensional (Penelope's spin-off was practically her being in Damsel mode constantly, and the Ant Hill Mob coming to save her and no the villain is not who you think....he got his own show(but he does get a mention in the first episode), and he ended up showing up in other shows too including Yo Yogi! I wish I was joking).
Graphics: Standard Game Boy Graphics, does not look very good in play mode, but the cut scenes are a different story, they kind of look better but it’s not much of an improvement.
Soundtrack: It has its own sound and it doesn’t really sound anything like the background music you would have heard on the actual cartoon.
Addictive: I would say a game like this is addictive even in a Mario Kart type format however I'm sure it would be even more if they forced more of an effort on us in regards to unlocking racers.
Depth and Difficulty: This follows the same patterns as Mario Kart, there are three race tracks per cup race as well as obstacles (like water and lava and all that crap) touch a W on the road and you get a weapon or a boost, and good thing too because it’s kind of difficult to keep a lead in this game.
Post-review Follow up: Yes I did review this already but that was for the DS, at least in this game there is no false advertisement. There’s a reason I keep coming back to Wacky Races in a way because this is actually my favourite show in the Hanna Barbera library, don’t get me wrong I love Scooby Doo too and at least a couple of it’s clone shows (and by that I mean shows like Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and Josie and the p****cats) but Wacky Races will always one of the biggest spaces in the nostalgia tv center of my brain (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego has the biggest space of all) more so that I actually bought all the comics in the Wacky Raceland mini series and I even caught some episodes of the reboot (and thank god they kept the most important racers) I thought the animation looked nice, but that they improved the hell out of Penelope Pitstop and we met her sister (who by the way I ship with Dick Dastardly…too bad it didn’t last....the show I mean) Also Wacky Races reminds me of a Teletoon that once was, a network that I would watch all the time that it would become my default network for about four years.
This concludes my review join me tomorrow when, well I don’t know I should really burn Wacky Races for PC before I do anything else but I really want to get YDKJ out of the way so we’ll see, no wait Jack, I won’t have time tomorrow morning
Graphics 2 Sound 2 Addictive 6 Depth 5 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 01-26-22
Review Replies: 0