Game #1180: Wreckin Crew

  Well, it's different. For good or bad.

 Wreckin Crew is a racing game that I feel is like no other. It's made up of various different ideas and pieces you may have seen in other games, but the end result is fairly... unique.

 Even by yesteryear's standards, the game is a bit lacking in content. You get two modes, Arcade for single races against CPU or players, and Competition, in which you play through championships. There are only four tracks, with Day/Night/Mirror Day/Mirror Night variations, and as far as I could tell, the day and night variations are identical in everything but the color of the sky. But, unlike Ridge Racer, the tracks are very unique... and enormous.

 For you see, every track is pretty much a maze of alternate routes. This is something that might appeal to some, and in paper it sounds great, but it makes for rather confusing courses. The game tries to help by highlight most routes with flying yellow arrows, but it doesn't work very well. The first race I tried I was completely overwhelmed, as I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on. But the more I played the more I understood it.

 I'll give it this, the game is incredibly ambitious, as I don't think I've played any other racing game with such large tracks. However, I think that plays against it, as every lap takes about a minute and a half, and they expect you to go through FOUR laps. That's a large time investment, and I don't think the game is fun enough to be a good use of my time.

 As for the racing itself, it takes after Mascot racers, mostly. There are 10 very weird, not so appealing racers to play as. Each has their own stats, as well as attacks. L1 and R1 perform basic side attacks, one to the left, and one to the right. Collecting Stars on the courses lets you use your special L2 and R2 attacks. Special attacks vary between characters, so some are way better than others. There are also nitros thrown around that you can store and use whenever you want, as well as dash pads and other powerups.

 I can't say I liked the game a whole lot. The art-direction is simply ugly, and while I do give the developers props for trying something different with this maze-like racing tracks, I can't say I enjoyed the execution. That said, given the nature of the game, something tells me it's a bit more fun in multiplayer.

 5.0