Back when Nintendo gamers were frothing over the launch of Mario Kart, PC gamers missed out. But before too long they got something that was almost as good as Mario Kart: Wacky Wheels.
A few years ago 3D Realms reached an agreement with a developer to license out the IP for a new game. That new game has emerged in the form of a HD reboot, which is available right now on Steam.
Wacky Wheels HD launched on Early Access earlier today for US$10. It won’t be a pre-release build for long though: developers Ferocity 2D say the goal is to release the game in June, around one month after online multiplayer is implemented.
The game is currently “feature complete outside of online play”, with the Grand Prix, duck shoot, combat and time trial modes currently available. The Grand Prix was the only mode I really played in the original anyway; the multiplayer battle mode was about as dross as the battle mode in Mario Kart.
You’ll also be able to mod the game, which could result in some interesting face-offs between characters from other franchises. (As modders are apt to do.)
The latest trailer isn’t on YouTube yet, although it’s up on Steam and you can view it here.
Wacky Wheels’ release now is interesting, because it basically pitches the game up against Super Indie Karts. The latter is an Australian project that needed a couple of goes on Kickstarter before it was successful, but in practice the two games are trying to achieve the same thing.
Either way, the launch has gotten me thinking about Wacky Wheels again. I’m pretty sure it’s sitting in my GOG library somewhere. When was the last time you played Wacky Wheels — and what were your favourite kart racers on PC?
Comments
17 responses to “A Wacky Wheels Remake Just Launched On Steam”
Wacky Wheels was terrible and I can’t recall why. It was basically a carbon copy of Mario Kart – perhaps its because it was on PC and not in the loungeroom with mates… I don’t know.
The drift mechanics were basically push a button and instantly turn 90 degrees
That’s exactly why it was awesome. It was a very, very competent Mario Kart clone on a platform that didn’t have any comparable titles. Nintendo wasn’t going to port to the PC so we got WW as basically a re-skin. It was perfect.
No comparable titles? What about Skunny Kart? I’d argue that was actually the better game.
Skunny was bad! Because it had Skunny.
Annoying little squirrel. 😛
Disclaimer: …I cannot for the life of me remember why I disliked Skunny.
Oh. That’s why: http://rinkworks.com/apogee/s/2.8.9.shtml
Apparently when the devs for Wacky Wheels were shopping for a publisher, they provided an early open-source version of a complete ending to Copysoft who they were contracting for at the time. Copysoft turned it down, Apogee stepped up instead, and there was a legal blue. Shortly after, Copysoft published their OWN kart-racer, Skunny Kart, using an engine suspiciously similar to the open-source version provided by the Wacky Wheels devs when trying to get it made.
YESSSSSS! Damn I loved this game. Played this to death in the 90s.
Sold.
Did anyone actually have the game? I only knew people that had the shareware copy but even that was still hours and hours of fun.
Not me for Wacky Wheels.
Man, back in those days people didn’t even have email addresses half the time… you needed to grab a money order or check and MAIL it to the devs to get a full copy sent to you on disk. If you were lucky, they had an Australian office (likely on the other side of the continent).
I do remember that my parents were absolute saints, trusting to the idea of sending money orders to the US, though, and we got quite a few shareware titles upgraded. Mostly titles on 5.25″ disks at the time. By the time 3.5s were becoming more common, distribution channels were improving.
FWIW, the ‘full’ version of Wacky Wheels was apparently only an extra set of tracks, which they started selling via CD a few years later.
Street racer on snes crapped on wacky wheels!! Battle mode was excellent fun in that game
I almost definitely had this game zipped across multiple floppy disks for deployment at school.
loved this game. everyone in my extended family seemed to have it so it was a go to pc game for multi player.
I have the original wacky wheels on my wishlist so guess it just got bumped for this one
Still got a boxed copy of both Wacky Wheels AND Skunny Kart.
This remake though.. something about it just looks awkward. The driving mechanics look a bit off, the camera angle seems too low and the way the characters all have that outline just looks odd next to everything else.
Camera angle’s been fixed in the latest builds, that video was just the latest one they had on YouTube.
i have the original on my steam library as part of a bundle package.
its horrible to play. i cant go back to these older racing games after being spoilt with new gen offerings.
Please tell me I can still send a Devil wiggling its butt to other people.