Nicktoons Racing PS1 Review
I've said it before, but I love a good kart racing game, and getting to race as most of Nickelodeon's best characters of the 90's is one of my favourites.
Developer: Software Creations
Publisher: Infogrames
Platforms: PlayStation 1, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy Advance, PC, Arcade.
Release Date: 2000 (GBC, PC), 2001 (PS1), 2002 (GBA), 2003 (Arcade).
22 years ago or so now, you used to be able to rent out video games from your local film store or Blockbuster. Or, in my case, borrowed them from the library. If you wanted to play something for the weekend, on a Friday night you’ll pop into a rental place, grab something that looks fun and interesting and return it on the following Monday. Usually back then, most of those games were something you could blast through and complete in an afternoon or by the end of the weekend. Nicktoons Racing is easily one of those games as in an hour or so you’ll have done everything you need to do. I certainly did as a kid when I borrowed this from the library and for as short as it is, it’s still pretty fun.
About 14 years ago I got verrrry nostalgic about this game and discovered emulation. Next to Looney Tunes Racing, this was one of the first games I emulated and it was exactly as I remembered it. But I needed to actually have the game, so 4 years ago I was lucky enough to get it for only £9. Not bad. And playing through it after years of drought again it was still as I remembered it to be. Thinking about it the game doesn’t seem to age for me and I don’t really look at it through a nostalgic lense with an altered perception. I can play it today and it is exactly as it was when I was 8.
The plot for the game is very short and simple, like the game as a whole. In an opening 15 fps animated cutscene, someone has sent letters to the cast of Nickelodeon characters to compete in a Grand Prix race for the Krusty Krab Big Bun Award. Your playable characters are Tommy, Angelica, Spongebob, Patrick, CatDog, The Angry Beavers Daggett and Norbert, Helga, Arnold, Eliza Thornberry, Darwin, Ickis, Stimpy, and a Myster Racer (ooOOooOOooh, and sounding a lot like Plankton I wonder who that could really be). And that’s it. I don’t understand why there’s no Rocko’s Modern Life characters though. Rocko and Heffer could have easily fit in as would some fun tracks based on their world, include in some more strength and variety to its already impressive Nickelodeon cast, but it possibly was because of time and budget restraints that stopped them. But anyway, you pick your favourite character, choose one of three cup races (12 tracks in all) and you’re off!
I think one thing that I’m going to be repeating myself a lot with this game is it is short, simple and fun all the way through. It feels like it was made on a minimal budget with not a whole lot of time for it, but for what’s spent on development on this game they’ve done rather well on it. It has only maybe 2 hours of gameplay to do everything, but it has plenty enough replayability to make you want to come back be it for its tracks, characters, atmosphere, or just wanting an easy, fun kart racer to play.
And for a kart racer it plays like any other. It doesn’t need to reinvent anything to it. X is go, square is brake, R1 is boost, L1 is item, R2 is to hop and turn into a drift, which doesn’t work as great compared to Crash Team Racing or Mario Kart. But that’s all you need for controls and it does control pretty decently. It can feel a little stiff in parts, especially on some of the more complex levels such as Bongo Bangup at the end. But I’ve played much worse racers and this is far from the worst I’ve ever played.
Naturally the items you use are themed around the characters and the cartoons they’re adopted from. There’s trash cans from Aahhh Real Monsters, Stimpy’s kitty litter, Spongebob’s bubbles and homing jellyfish, a camera flash, sticky goo, the stump from Angry Beavers, magic totem that steals other racers’ items and coconuts from Wild Thornberrys. There was enough effort put behind the designs of the items you use to make them unique and using Nick’s various cartoon I.P.’s very well. Which really is one of the best things of this game.
Like all good kart racers, especially one such as this based on multiple I.P.’s, it has a lot of variety in its design and rather faithfully done too. Every character has a uniquely designed kart to race in such as Tommy’s Reptar Wagon, the Angry Beavers in a chunk of wood, Spongebob in a pineapple, Eliza in a safari jeep, Ickis in a cockroach and Stimpy in his kitty litter tray. They all look great. It’s funny seeing CatDog in old 1910’s driving hat and goggles and scarf.
Naturally there are tracks based around most all of the characters in this game. Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Angry Beavers, CatDog, Spongebob, Wild Thornberrys, Aahhh Real Monsters and Ren & Stimpy all get at least one track in the game. Each track is easily dinstinguishable and you can take just one look at it and identify immediately what cartoon you’re racing in even if you didn’t look at the name of the track. They all capture their respective cartoon shows very nicely. As for the tracks themselves they’re not too overly complicated. Some turns feel a little too tight to turn around though the passable drift helps here, some of the later levels feel overly cluttered making for easy crashes into walls and other messes if you’re not too careful which can lead to some mild frustrations. But otherwise they’re nicely laid out and fun to go around. Seeing the faithful cartoon designs of the place is very pleasant and joyful to be in. Some tracks even have multiple paths to choose between, I like that idea. None of the tracks are too long either, they’re all no longer than maybe 3-4 minutes to race around so they don’t feel like an overextended slog to race through.
If the visuals somehow weren’t good enough to distinguish between each cartoon then the sound would just about do it. They don’t use any direct themes from the cartoons at all but there are enough motifs there and instruments used to be able to recognise what it’s trying to sound like. You get playful and bouncy strings for Rugrats music, jazzy music for Hey Arnold, wooden percussions for Wild Thornberrys music, and all the usual lap steel guitar and ukelele’s for Spongebob. They’re all completely original tracks made for the game but they’re all done in the correct styles of the shows. And it works ok. The soundtrack is very playful and cartoony.
As for the rest of the sound, there’s some really weird mixing going on. Some item sounds can come in so loud, like when using the stump it comes screeching in so loudly. There are some other sound effects and voices that come in rather loudly as well, like Angelica’s whining when she gets hit and Helga’s hellish shriek, it’s a little offputting. But for the sound effects in general, they’re all perfectly cartoony, playful and appropriate for Nicktoons making it authentically feel like you’re playing a cartoon. And yes, everyone comes and voices their characters as well adding that much needed layer of authenticity to the characters in the game with their shrieks and screams and laughs and odd one-liners. No idea why the modern Nicktoons racing games never paid out to put that in their games. This game was already on a budget and you can feel it and yet they could afford the actors. Anyway…
Nicktoons racing is one of those cheap budget titles with only a few hours of gameplay in them. Although there is additional things to do such as time trials, free racing tracks, multiplayer versus, relay race picking from 3 different characters, and a single and multiplayer bonus levels you unlock after completing the cups on medium and hard. So, you will easily get a good few hours out of this in an afternoon, but you will find yourself wanting to pick it up and play it again later on for either nostalgia’s sake or wanting a short fun racing game to play. It’s good, quick fun. In the time of rentals it would’ve been perfect for it (probably was.) For kids it’s pretty much perfect for them to keep them amused for a short while. For Nickelodeon fans and kart racer fans I say it’s absolutely worth a look into. It’s a short, harmless, fun little thing that is very faithfully designed to its cartoon I.P'.’s. Maybe try not to have the volume on too loud but otherwise it’s a fun kart racer. If it had more time and money put into development maybe we would have gotten a much more polished game with a bigger cast of characters and tracks. It’s not the best kart racer, perhaps, but absolutely nowhere near the worst one you’ll ever play.
Where to Purchase:
eBay: £15- £65
Amazon: £25