ONM Remembered – #426
“The car engines sound like vacuum cleaners, and there aren’t many other sounds aside from that.”
from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 88 (January 2000)
If I remember correctly*, this game was announced very early in the N64’s life, supposedly planned for release in early 1998/1999, but gave everyone the run-around until the new millennium. There was no shortage of racers on the N64 at this point – some of them even half-decent! – so for one to come out that controlled like a bar of soap in a skating rink… you have to ask yourself, why bother? Why did anyone bother?
To its credit, it’s strangely compelling to watch on YouTube. It might be the lack of sleep talking, but the game in motion looks like a botched chalk drawing brought to life, and I can think of no other game that lets you run over the cast of The Land Before Time. It might very well be the first video game performance art piece. Put that gameplay on an easel and stick it in an art show.
* (i wouldn’t need to remember if i could be arsed to dig out the issues again – have you ever tried filing things? it’s boring as hell! filing things is always a precursor to chucking those things out because who can live with that kind of responsibility)
