Wacky Races - PSX - £29.99 - Out Now

When I was young, I used to place bets at the start of Wacky Races with my friend to guess who won the race at the end of each episode. It was great fun, although I frequently lost out to my mate….only later discovering he had a video with all the episodes on anyway - bloody cheat.

Wacky Races is one of those cartoons I've always thought would make a great video game. For the unfamiliar; 11 outlandish characters raced each other around the globe to become the world's wackiest racer. But one of them - Dick Dastardly and his sometimes faithful companion Muttley, would go to any lengths to win the races by cheating with some of the most ridiculous schemes imaginable.

Well, you'd think that there's been enough cartoon-racing games for the creators of Wacky Races to learn from. Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing and Speed Freaks are good examples of this genre, and at least in terms of structure, Wacky Races is pretty similar. It offers multi-player, practice and tournament options - with more secrets revealed as you progress through the game….if you can be bothered.

Graphics wise - Wacky Races is frankly horrible. I mean, why bother having such a cool license, with characters like Dastardly and Muttley and Penolope Pittstop when they appear as small, indistinct blocky blobs? The backdrops are similarly lame; being horribly sparse and jerky….it really does look like an early PSX title - and compared with the rest of this year's Playstation racers like Gran Turismo 2 or Colin Mc.Rae 2.0, it's pretty laughable.

Wacky Races fares a bit better in the sound department. Ok, so the in-game music is totally derivative and non-distinct, but at least the character's sound like they do on the telly (even if they don't look like they do!) so you kinda know that you're playing a Wacky Races game.

What really frustrates me though, is how much potential has been missed in this title. In the cartoon, the characters would employ loads of imaginative tricks and shortcuts in order to win the race - customising their vehicles with crazy add-ons and spare parts….to much comedy effect. In this game though, Wacky Races has been reduced to a lame Mario Kart-esque effort, with little to redeem it other than the cartoon license. The gameplay is sluggish, muddy and glitchy and sadly, the whole package falls flat on it's face.

(Much like one of Dick Dastardly's plans then. Ho ho.)

- Eddy Vista