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Space Race Review

Chris Leyton

00/12/0000

Join Bugs, Daffy and the crew in a race to see who can win a lifetime supply of ACME goodies.

Space Race appeared on the Dreamcast last year to a muted reception, despite being one of the first games to plagiarise Segaâs âCell-Shadingâ technique, it helped to capture the Looney Tunes spirit better then most.

Not one for letting a license go to waste, Infogrames and Melbourne House have spent the last year porting the game to the PS2. Thankfully the developers have taken onboard criticism and added a few exclusive PS2 and DVD features to make this worth a look out if you didnât catch it the first time around.

Space Race pits everybodyâs favourite characters in a standard Mario Kart clone, with a variety of ACME gags to use against your opponents. Win races and progress on to the next, yes youâve seen it all before.

Youâll get to choose from a selection of characters, including such favourites as Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Daffy Duck and Wile.E.Coyote to name but a few. Despite it blatantly copying Segaâs trick, the cell-shading helps to bring each of the characters and environments to life in the way that youâd expect. Characters all animate and look as if this were copied straight from the original cartoons, whilst they also stay truthful to their origins, the muted Wile.E.Coyote will raise signs instead of talking, those that can talk all sound true to their cartoon roots. Capturing the classic Looney Tunes feel helps the game immensely, at times you canât help but chuckle along with the game, fans certainly wonât be disappointed.

The same level of attention has been paid to the presentation, with slick DVD style screens and Foghorn Leghorn sitting in as the presenter of the TV styled main tournament.

To its credit Space Race features an enormous amount of different game modes, the standard tournament, time-trials and versus modes are all here. These are joined by newer events such as the Super Doopa Boosta Race, a much faster event where youâre granted an infinite boost gauge. As you progress through the main tournament, new cups will open up, winning them will give you tokens to open up the huge selection of unlockable extras, such as new characters, animations and a selection of other Looney Tunes related goodies.

Youâd be forgiven for thinking at this point that Space Race is something of a rarity, a Mario Kart clone thatâs actually worth buying. Unfortunately the same high praise for the general presentation canât be said about the actual game. What you get is a very generic racer, with very standard course layouts. Emphasis is placed on combat rather then out-and-out racing, which makes races frustrating stop-start affairs, and sees you often wiped out just as you were about to cross the finish line in first place. It helps that the weapons are based on classic ACME gags and have a very high amusement factor. Whilst theyâre all based on weapons weâve seen before; the instant black hole is just the banana skin the four-leaf clover is invincibility, dropping an elephant on whoeverâs winning is much more amusing then hitting him with a blue shell.

To their credit Melbourne House have listened to criticism levelled about the combat system in the Dreamcast version. The new Acme Look Out Rear Warning System shows different coloured arrows highlighting where and what the threat is. OK itâs not as complex as the name suggests and isnât very useful, the idea is that if you get the timing just right you can swerve out of the way. However it hasnât been worked out very well, leaving you cursing more then once as youâre piped to the post time and time again.