Let's Talk About the Awesomeness of Beetle Adventure Racing

[Deleted member 23850]

This game was the shit. For a N64 game, it has aged INCREDIBLY well. There's only six tracks, but the tracks were insanely imaginative and crafted with extraordinary vision. Since videos do this game justice while my shitty writing does not, gameplay footage, whether or not you remember the game or not.



Sequel or remake please. There's a demand for either of these, damn it.

 

[Ducayne]

I remember being so amped for this game and definitely lived up to my childhood expectations. The courses were so varied and imaginative, and allowed for tons of replay. Glad I wasn't the only one that loved it!

 

[Indelible]

This was a great rental back in the day, so many different shortcuts through courses.

 

[Sheepinator]

I remember playing the hell out of that at the time.

 

[Pirateluigi]

Still my favorite arcade racer ever. Thankfully used carts are still pretty cheap.

 

[gcncontroller]

never had mario kart 64, but we did have this game for some reason. not sure why but i think about it a lot... the music is godlike and that rainbow beetle was the coolest shit ever

 

[Treestump]

I still think about this game every now and then and how my brother and I were apparently the only kids who had and played the game. Game freaking rocked.

 

[Conrad Link]

Loved it so much! Was fun to race and fun to explore, the perfect kind of racing game to me - amazing! I really wish we had more racing games like this, give me areas to explore, secrets and varied paths/shortcuts to find. Right up there on the awesome N64 exclusives list.

There's a reason I find 'regular' car games where the idea is to tune up your car and turn this corner perfectly to increase you lap time by .02% completely boring, and it's Adventure Racing.

 

[Big_Erk]

With production of the New Beetle ending in 2019, now would be a great time for a sequel. Loved this game so much.

 

[Ludovico]

Only owned about 12 N64 games or so, but sooooooo glad Beetle Racing was one of them.
Loved the alternate paths, the cheesy smashing effects, the crazy levels, tons of secret stuff and insane launches. Even multiplayer was awesome.

 

[julian]

My friends and I used to play the multiplayer aaaall the time. It had great modes.

 

[Salty Hippo]

Easily one of the best racing games ever made. It's a crime how forgotten it has become. Reviews were glowing back then, but it was not enough to stop it from being another casualty of the "N64 barely had any games" revisionist narrative.

 

[Ryuelli]

Beetle Adventure Racing is probably my favorite racing game ever. I love everything about it.

I still have the "MOUNT MAYHEM" title announcement stuck in my head every now and then.

I'd love a spiritual successor to it someday, the multiple course routes and all the ridiculous things that happen in each of them is just awesome. Everything from dinosaurs to aliens to volcanoes and more.

 

[Adroitone]

Shortcuts within shortcuts within shortcuts. This, Wave Race 64 and F-Zero GX are my favorite racers of all time. I have no clue why no other developers developing racing games has used the concept BAR brought with it's shortcuts. Exploring and finding shortcuts and mastering the execution to get the edge is some of the best gaming I've had. It only had 6 tracks, but there were like 8 tracks within each track. The game was just incredible.

 

[RandomExpletive]

ADVENTUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE RACING

Welcome!

Single Race!

Full Grid

OK!

Wasn't good/still not good at racing games but boy I've got some fond memories of BAR

 

[samred]

ADVENTUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE RACING

Welcome!

Single Race!

Full Grid

OK!

Wasn't good/still not good at racing games but boy I've got some fond memories of BAR

Click to shrink...

I still laugh that the announcer only says "ADVENTUUUUURE RACING" so that they could use the same line in the Australian version, the only one to not get VW Beetles. I mean, if you prefer HSV, that's the region for ya.

 

[Vilam]

I miss arcade racers. The only stuff coming out of that genre these days are games where... let's just say the funding isn't resulting in the production values I'm looking for.

 

[pants]

There was a different game where you raced magic flying beetles, and it was terrible.

I still have the shriek of my bug mount burnt into my memory.

 

[Deleted member 23850]

There's a reason I find 'regular' car games where the idea is to tune up your car and turn this corner perfectly to increase you lap time by .02% completely boring, and it's Adventure Racing.

Click to shrink...

I loved racing games growing up, but lost interest in them hard once Gran Turismo and Forza entered the scene. This is the reason why. Realistic racing games are boring as shit.

That, and Kart racing games are also mediocre compared to what I played on the N64 and early PS2.

 

[Oneself]

Oh man, I miss arcade racers so much. :(
This game is incredible, I still have an indescribable feeling watching this. The last time I felt something similar was probably when playing Motorstorm PR years back.

 

[Betelgeuse]

Another BAR faithful reporting in. Great game!

 

[TheCrackedJack]

It's downright depressing how many AAA (for the time) arcade racers there were during the N64 era like Star Wars Racing, Top Gear Overdrive, the Cruis'n games, Wave Race, F-Zero, San Francisco Rush, Wipeout 64, Ridge Racer 64, Hydro Thunder, Automobili Lamborghini, and others.

 

[Shalashaska]

Had a ton of fun with this back in the day. Finding all the hidden shortcuts was a blast and helped make up for the small track selection. Definitely a forgotten classic.

 

[higemaru]

Wicked Woods is one of the coolest levels in a racing game. Saw it when I was extremely young and it stayed in my mind forever.

 

[Deleted member 4093]

I still have mine. Such a fun game and very creative as well especially through multiplayer. I remember thinking it was another mario kart or crusin usa but it was its own thing. The adventure isnt just put in for the name.

 

[BurritoBushido]

Hell yes, what a game

 

[Deleted member 23850]

I hate it when people lazily compare every unrealistic driving game to Mario Kart. Even Diddy Kong Racing isn't like fucking Mario Kart.

 

[rawhide]

This game was rebranded as HSV Adventure Racing in Australia, I guess they thought the local car brand would boost sales. Did they do that elsewhere?

 

[Deleted member 23850]

This game was rebranded as HSV Adventure Racing in Australia, I guess they thought the local car brand would boost sales. Did they do that elsewhere?

Click to shrink...

No, just in Australia.

 

[Vimes]

I still laugh that the announcer only says "ADVENTUUUUURE RACING" so that they could use the same line in the Australian version, the only one to not get VW Beetles. I mean, if you prefer HSV, that's the region for ya.

Click to shrink...

As someone who lives in the US and loved this game as a kid, finding out relatively recently that there was another version of the same game with a completely different car license blew my mind.

It would be so cool if the Adventure Racing brand lived on beyond the Beetle somehow. Mini Adventure Racing? Fiat Adventure Racing? I guess the only folks who are interested in making this style of game anymore are indies, so it's probably not in the cards. But boy is it fun to dream.

 

[The Main Event]

Still have my N64 cart. No contest, one of the greatest arcade racer of that era.

 

[Deleted member 23850]

I can only imagine how lush the levels would be on the PS4.

Another things I like about the tracks is how they blend fantasy elements, but they never feel cartoonish or over the top. They feel realistic, yet fantastic. Everything feels dignified.

Very much unlike my other favorite racing game, RC Revenge Pro, which is the exact opposite.

 

[bishoptl]

EA Vancouver represent :)

 

[rawhide]

No, just in Australia.

Click to shrink...

Weird, I guess we just got "lucky".

I hate it when people lazily compare every unrealistic driving game to Mario Kart. Even Diddy Kong Racing isn't like fucking Mario Kart.

Click to shrink...

It's been a long time since I played either of them but my impression at the time was that Adventure Racing was riffing off San Francisco Rush more than anything else.

 

[Deleted member 23850]

It's been a long time since I played either of them but my impression at the time was that Adventure Racing was riffing off San Francisco Rush more than anything else.

Click to shrink...

I played both games heavily, and neither game felt like a clone of another.

 

[alr1ght]

Modern racing games pale in comparison to this. One of the GOATs.

 

[Laserbeam]

Kind of amazing how good it ended up being. It was quite fantastic.

Been a long ass time since I played, but I loved how weighty everything felt and how much exploring there was to be done on all the courses. They felt huge.

 

[Deleted member 24907]

I remember hating this game and thinking it was shit, because I rented it back in the day not knowing it needed a save pak and I didn't have one. Being completely unable to save any of my progress I was limited to basically whatever I could unlock in one sitting, which generally included a bunch of Beetle cars that looked the same except for different paint jobs, so I thought it was super lame that all the cars looked the same.

I've since heard rave things about this game but my only experience with it was pretty negative lol.

 

[Deleted member 23850]

I remember hating this game and thinking it was shit, because I rented it back in the day not knowing it needed a save pak and I didn't have one. Being completely unable to save any of my progress I was limited to basically whatever I could unlock in one sitting, which generally included a bunch of Beetle cars that looked the same except for different paint jobs, so I thought it was super lame that all the cars looked the same.

I've since heard rave things about this game but my only experience with it was pretty negative lol.

Click to shrink...

This is unfortunately the only negative I have of the game. I beat the game and unlocked everything way back when, but I lost my memory card a long time ago and have never been able to find it. So trying to win everything again is completely not worth it.

 

[i'm not a rob0t]

i rented the shit out of this all the time as a kid

 

[GlassCup64]

BEETLE BATTLE

Fond memories of this game growing up. I never had a Memory Pak, so I basically played the first three levels over and over again. A few years ago I went back and completed the campaign!

 

[Scarecrow]

Fond memories of me and my friends searching for secret unlock crates hidden in the levels.

 

[Deleted member 24907]

This is unfortunately the only negative I have of the game. I beat the game and unlocked everything way back when, but I lost my memory card a long time ago and have never been able to find it. So trying to win everything again is completely not worth it.

Click to shrink...

Yeah. And to be clear I'm sure the game is pretty good based on how fondly people remember it, but I never bothered to play it for real.

 

[Deleted member 48897]

I need to get this game. I never played it. It sounds like something I'd love, because it's described as the nigh-perfect racing game, or at least meets all my criteria for one.

 

[Deleted member 23850]

I need to get this game. I never played it. It sounds like something I'd love, because it's described as the nigh-perfect racing game, or at least meets all my criteria for one.

Click to shrink...

It really does come close, almost. The scale of the game still kind of blows me away. Metro Madness is crazy.

 

[Deleted member 2171]

I always wondered if the license came first on this one or if it was an internal project they went and looked for a license for.

Great game.

 

[Maika_Fan]

I'd kill for this on the Switch, best N64 racer by far.

 

[CoolS]

I just thought about this game yesterday. Loved it very much, even the MP.

I wish they would rerelease it in a better resolution on all plattforms. A remake would be best but it will probably never happen because of licence reasons

 

[CommodoreKong]

I loved the tracks in this game. I remember getting some game magazine (maybe Tips and Tricks) that had beautiful hand drawn maps of the tracks that got me to rent and eventually buy this game.

 

[carlosrox]

I loved the fuck out of this game when I was 12!