Perfectly Peculiar Pixels [#26]

Those who participated in my classes will have no doubt noticed I treat the 90s like movie buffs treat the 80s - an incredibly fertile time for amazingly varied ideas, spurred on by high rate of technology development.

Racing games seem to go back pretty early, 1985 Grand Prix on the Master System, and 1989s Outrun on the arcades, and later Genesis/MegaDrive being some of the earlier notable titles. But nineties intervened with their own quirky twist to the genre in the games below.

1995 was a good video game year, with titles such as The Dig and Phantasmagoria in the P’n’C genre, Command and Conquer and Warcraft 2 would divide real time strategy fans, and Mechwarrior 2 would alongside Descent provide impressive (for the time) 3D experiences. Outside of Warcraft’s funny unit responses which became a staple of Blizzard’s series going forward, the one thing all these have in common is how serious they took themselves. It was no different with racing games up to that point, outside of the likes of Micro Machines, and Mario Kart. Neither of which were in 3D at the time. In walked, or rather drove, Big Red Racing. Guaranteed to have the most varied line- up of vehicles to race in. Coupled with the graphics so quirky you can’t even be mad at it when you lose, it’s a rarely talked about gem of early 3D, showing that racing doesn’t have to be always taken so seriously.

While nascent 3D games were popping up for a while, Death Rally does what games did best in the early 90s - high paced 2D action. It doesn’t bother itself or the player with an elaborate story about why you have to race, shoot, and blow up your opponents in order to race “The Nemesis” around a track, it just does. It features unlockable gear, weapon and vehicle upgrades, and even allows you to borrow money from blood thirsty loan sharks. That was the kind of financial invention we applauded in the 90s, prior to the coming of micro transactions. In an unusual twist of fate, the classic version of this game is currently free to download on Steam.

Outside of board games there are few toy-sets (see anything Barbie related) that lend themselves directly to video gaming potential, as Hot Wheels. This is neither the first game to feature these little things, nor the first one to do toy-car racing. Micro Machines precedes this title by at least a decade. However, there are certain ‘visual stories’ that require maturing before they can be successfully thrust out to the public. Pixar had to wait for CPUs to mature enough so rendering times don’t take longer than the lifespan of our Sun. Lord of the rings needed both hardware and software that could simulate crowds at an unprecedented scale. And things like Sea of Thieves with its beautiful waves could not be done believably even just 15 years ago. This title is at that maturation level where the technology just ready to be presented to the public. As its secondary mission is to promote HotWheels toys, you can also create racing tracks out of the typical HotWheels track components. It’s also a Windows game, so you don’t need to bother with DOS box, but you might need either a vintage machine, or a virtual machine running an earlier version of Windows… which, as someone studying video game production, you do have, right?

Whacky vehicles, building your own tracks, fighting your opponents along the way; always remember, everything is a remix. Unlike the other titles though, this one throws you into multiplayer with friends, or soon-to-no-longer-be-friends, depending on how the game goes, with every aspect gamified- including the track design. It’s available for the always best price of free this week on Epic, and unlike other titles here, requires no goats to be sacrificed in order for it to work on a modern system. The simple graphics and quirky gameplay are a good study in remixing old mechanics into a modern outing. We are at the envious point in gaming history where art style is no longer dictated by technology, and gameplay experimentation like this should, be a gateway to a new golden age of fun and inventive video game mechanics.

“OI! 10.000 YEARS WILL GIVE YOU SUCH A CRICK IN THE NECK!”