Title: World Racing
Genre: Racing
Publisher: Midway
Platform: Nintendo 64
At its roots, World Racing is a run of the mill racing game. Starting in a car with atrocious stats, you slowly advance upward through the ranks of the racing world. As you win races your car improves. Does this sound familiar to everyone? There is very little that separates this game from others of its genre on the N64. World Racing sports 30 cars and more than 40 tracks, though many of the different tracks are simply variations on the 12 basic tracks. One of the few things that separates it from the rest of the genre is the ability to change the team that you race with. By doing this you can lower or raise the amount of success needed to advance to the next car. This feature does give the game some replay value, but it is certainly not enough to overcome the problems with the game.
The main problem that everyone who plays the game will notice as soon as they start is the games brutal learning curve. The controls heaviness, combined with a tendency for spin-outs while turning will frustrate people who have not played a racing game before this one. The repetition required to place will probably annoy everyone else. Each track needs to be raced repeatedly so that you can gauge the speeds needed to take the various turns. What this means game-wise is that you will place eighth repeatedly on the first track, but then, after memorizing the maximum speeds to the turns , youll place third. The graphics are okay, but certainly not ground breaking.
Despite my focus on the bad side of World Racing, it is still quite enjoyable. Tragically, its problems, combined with its lack of innovation, would not lead me to advise anyone to purchase it. However, if you are looking for a video game to rent for an intensive weekend of racing, and enjoy a challenge, by all means rent this fun game.
