Julian Scott of Space Pants Games just dropped the unreleased Genesis/Mega Drive version of Wacky Races up on Itch.io for free. While the game was developed to completion for publisher Virgin Entertainment, it was left unpublished because they didn’t have the rights to the property.
Wacky Races was this horrendous Hanna-Barbera cartoon from 1968. To be fair, I don’t like most Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the era, with The Flintstones and The Jetsons being the big exceptions. However, Wacky Races was this horribly formulaic premise about a vehicular race between various cartoon teams. Dick Dastardly and his sidekick Muttley would try to cheat by sabotaging, ambushing, or setting traps for other racers. These would, of course, backfire on him and invariably cause him to lose.
I got so sick of the show when it was airing on Teletoon Retro. I started rooting for Dick Dastardly to win.
By Scott’s estimation, the Genesis version of Wacky Races was worked on around 1993 by Eden Software. This isn’t the first we’ve seen of the unreleased title, as a version of it has been hanging around the internet since at least 2020. However, this is the first time we’ve seen it through a marketplace like itch. I question the legality of it, but Scott is offering the game up for free.
Double drat!
I gave the prototype a try. Rather than the sprite scaling and rotating of Mario Kart or the raster effect of Road Rash, Wacky Races uses a polygonal 3D track. Sort of like Race Drivin’ but flatter. Surprisingly, the whole thing runs pretty well if you’re using the bottom screen for radar. The downside is that the draw distance is incredibly short. It’s still pretty impressive for the console and the time period.
Unfortunately, it loses points because you can’t destroy the sanctity of the sport by choosing Dick Dastardly. Also, the steering isn’t great, and the graphics are a bit hard to read. Still, it’s not bad for a licensed game. It even has a battle mode, and you can play with a second player.
You can try out Wacky Races by downloading it from itch.io right now. You’re on your own when it comes to how you run it.
