Julian Scott of House Pants Video games simply dropped the unreleased Genesis/Mega Drive model of Wacky Races up on Itch.io totally free. Whereas the sport was developed to completion for writer Virgin Leisure, it was left unpublished as a result of they didn’t have the rights to the property.

Wacky Races was this horrendous Hanna-Barbera cartoon from 1968. To be truthful, I don’t like most Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the period, with The Flintstones and The Jetsons being the large exceptions. Nonetheless, Wacky Races was this horribly formulaic premise a few vehicular race between numerous cartoon groups. Dick Dastardly and his sidekick Muttley would attempt to cheat by sabotaging, ambushing, or setting traps for different racers. These would, in fact, backfire on him and invariably trigger him to lose.

I obtained so sick of the present when it was airing on Teletoon Retro. I began rooting for Dick Dastardly to win.

By Scott’s estimation, the Genesis model of Wacky Races was labored on round 1993 by Eden Software program. This isn’t the primary we’ve seen of the unreleased title, as a model of it has been hanging across the web since at the very least 2020. Nonetheless, that is the primary time we’ve seen it by means of a market like itch. I query the legality of it, however Scott is providing the sport up totally free.

Double drat!

I gave the prototype a attempt. Quite than the sprite scaling and rotating of Mario Kart or the raster impact of Street Rash, Wacky Races makes use of a polygonal 3D observe. Form of like Race Drivin’ however flatter. Surprisingly, the entire thing runs fairly properly when you’re utilizing the underside display screen for radar. The draw back is that the draw distance is extremely brief. It’s nonetheless fairly spectacular for the console and the time interval.

Sadly, it loses factors as a result of you’ll be able to’t destroy the sanctity of the game by selecting Dick Dastardly. Additionally, the steering isn’t nice, and the graphics are a bit exhausting to learn. Nonetheless, it’s not dangerous for a licensed sport. It even has a battle mode, and you may play with a second participant.

You’ll be able to check out Wacky Races by downloading it from itch.io proper now. You’re by yourself on the subject of the way you run it.