Beetle Adventure Racing by Electronic Arts

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April 26, 1999
Web posted at: 10:53 a.m. EDT (1453 GMT)

By CNN Interactive
Associate Editor John Robinson

(CNN) -- Americans' love affair with the Volkswagen Beetle dates back to the early 1960's when the car was first introduced to the United States. In 1998, Volkswagen redesigned the Beetle with a sleek, new look for the 90's, and the love affair started all over again.

Electronic Arts attempts to capitalize on this fascination with a video game for the Nintendo 64 named "Beetle Adventure Racing." The question is: can a racing game that features only one car be a success?

You begin "Beetle Adventure Racing" by choosing one of three new Beetles and picking a color. Then you're ready to race. The fact that you can only drive the new Beetles might seem to some like a recipe for a mediocre game with little or no replay value. While the cars are admittedly cute, it's the gameplay that makes this racer so incredibly fun and addictive. The cars simply handle like a dream making this a game that anyone can pick up and play yet it still offers a challenge to even the most experienced gamer.

The Beetles are presented in a number of brilliant colors and look exactly like their real-life counterparts. On the other hand, the incredibly long tracks are anything but realistic with constantly changing weather and surreal environments designed to keep you on your toes. One of the tracks even features an angry T-Rex that looks like it wants to take a bite out of your car as you speed past.

Once you have figured out the basic layout of the tracks, you will begin to notice the numerous shortcuts that each track has to offer. Shortcuts will often send you flying through the air and can also help you catch your opponents and pick up bonus points. They are also what gives the game its originality because you can always choose a different route. Blue nitro boxes scattered throughout the courses will give you a huge burst of speed that can hurtle you past the other cars, or smack into the wall.

"Beetle Adventure Racing" offers a single-player mode, a two-player mode and a multi-player mode called Beetle Battle. Single-player has a Championship mode that rewards you with better cars and more tracks each time you beat a given difficulty level. The two-player mode lacks some of the detail and sharpness of single player, and noticeably absent are the nitro boxes. The Beetle Battle is a cross between car combat and a quest in which players drive in around in an open area and collect a number of colored beetles. The first player to collect all the beetles and exit the level is the winner.

The graphics in "Beetle Adventure Racing" truly showcase the 64-bit Nintendo's capabilities. The game has highly detailed backgrounds and moves very smoothly, rarely looking choppy or pixilated. Even though the game can be a bit dark in some places, the lighting effects are superb with an impressive use of shadows and reflections. Sound effects are what you expect from a driving game and are even a little above average. The only real flaw is that the cars could have sounded a little sportier. The background music is a beat driven, dance track, and despite being quite repetitive, it suits the game quite well.

What more can be said about this game other than despite the fact you only have one car to choose from, it is still impossible to put down? You really don't even have to like the new Beetle to really enjoy this game because the tracks are so incredibly well-designed. "Beetle Adventure Racing" is a definite breath of fresh air for fans of racing games and a top contender in the "just plain fun" category.

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