Great game.
Any game full of subpar cars(at least in the "cool" factor) that is that fun deserves recognition.
Any game full of subpar cars(at least in the "cool" factor) that is that fun deserves recognition.
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LOL oops.
I meant "loved the fuck out of this game".
.....yeah that's what I meant...
Suuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee....
Ha ha just kidding. I loved the fuck out of this game when I was younger as well. Thankfully, unlike other games I loved at that time, this game still is as good as it was. Not blowing smoke, either. Even the visuals look great.
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I'm the only person I know that remembers this game, I think, and I always put it on my list of games I'm hoping are on the N64 Classic even though I know it'll never happen ;___;
HSV Adventure Racing makes it an even harder question to answer
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I absolutely adored this game growing up. I remember I had no interest in non-kart racers due to believing they were all realistic, so when my cousins who lived next door got this as a gift I found it so lame. Oh how wrong I was.
The game was so full of charm and the courses were super exciting and distinct. We spent hours exploring every bit of every course, finding shortcuts and surprises. Unlocking new cars was pretty exciting too, I remember some having special abilities, like a police car that made others get out of the way when using the siren... That was a thing, right? I haven't played this in almost 20 years now, oops.
But yeah this is one of my favorite racers. It's always frustrating when I reminisce on that era with friends and nobody recognizes the name when I bring it up, haha.
The game was so full of charm and the courses were super exciting and distinct. We spent hours exploring every bit of every course, finding shortcuts and surprises. Unlocking new cars was pretty exciting too, I remember some having special abilities, like a police car that made others get out of the way when using the siren... That was a thing, right? I haven't played this in almost 20 years now, oops.
But yeah this is one of my favorite racers. It's always frustrating when I reminisce on that era with friends and nobody recognizes the name when I bring it up, haha.
am I the only one who used to hop into Beetle Battle just to abuse the handbrake and pull off midair spins like a fucking tornado
Nice soundtrack too. Subtle and not too over the top. Other racing games that tried to pull off what BAR did would probably make everything cartoonish, overtly peppy, and ultimately annoying.
Yes! The Police Car pretty much made getting the secrets so much easier. Once you earned it, the game was damn near broken, in a good way.
Rented when I was younger and I have very fond memories of it. Great racer.
A mascot racer with in-track obstacles and weapons. Yeah it has a lot of differences, but it's similar enough to be in that same genre.
Sure, both Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing games are Kart Racing games, but both games played differently overall. Which was my original point, just because Diddy Kong Racing was a Kart game like Mario Kart doesn't meant it was a clone or a ripoff. That type of thinking needs to stop.
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I remember it being a very good looking game, way better than most 3rd party games (for example San Francisco Rush). Did EA have access to those Microcode dev-tools, which were exclusive to 1st & 2nd party developers (afair)?
It was a really nice game, I do miss the days of these arcade games with their shortcuts and set pieces.
I think that as a child, the concept of finding something secret But meaningful visually and gameplay wise was really rewarding.
Really find memories of lots of them on N64
San Francisco Rush 1/2/2049
Hydro Thunder
Arctic Thunder
Off Road Thunder
4 Wheel Thunder
Midway were so great at those
Still pleased to his day that MS made a new Hydro Thunder
I think that as a child, the concept of finding something secret But meaningful visually and gameplay wise was really rewarding.
Really find memories of lots of them on N64
San Francisco Rush 1/2/2049
Hydro Thunder
Arctic Thunder
Off Road Thunder
4 Wheel Thunder
Midway were so great at those
Still pleased to his day that MS made a new Hydro Thunder
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The developers co/developed Pilotwings 64, so presumably had a special relationship with Nintendo.
They did all of the formula 1 games too, which appeared almost photorealistic at the time
I guess it goes without saying what I think of this game. One of the best games ever made and IMO probably the best racing game ever made.
So what's everyone's favorite track in the game? I honestly can't decide. You can make a serious argument for Coventry Cove.
One of the best racing games ever, and I only rented it because I had played everything else at my local video store, lol. I'm so glad I did because it was the shock of a lifetime.
The track designers went hard with this one. I still have random flashbacks of shortcuts and jumps to this day (like the huge drop into the caves on the snow track). Wonderfully flowing and unique courses layered with shortcuts. This kind of racing game is truly a lost art.
I think I might have purchased every single racing game for the Nintendo 64. When you only own 1 current gen console and that console has the kinda droughts the N64 you end up finding the gems like Beetle Adventure Racing and the duds like Dark Rift*
*I should have said AeroGauge
*I should have said AeroGauge
Goemon's Great Adventure is one of the most overlooked N64 games, great pick up.Goddamn you, OP:
I had to do a bunch of digging and now I'm probably going to waste my entire playing this (and also the other games I kept finding that made me go "ooooh! shit!")
Thanks a lot!
There's no way EA would ever consider it worth the money they would make off a re-release to get the Beetle license again or modify the game to have different, generic cars.
Jesus christ now I really want a N64 miniGoddamn you, OP:
I had to do a bunch of digging and now I'm probably going to waste my entire playing this (and also the other games I kept finding that made me go "ooooh! shit!")
Thanks a lot!
Grrr-oovy!
Nasty!
I rented this game as a kid, but don't remember much besides the voice lines. Beetle battle mode was our jam.
Nasty!
I rented this game as a kid, but don't remember much besides the voice lines. Beetle battle mode was our jam.
I remember hesitating to get this, despite the gameplay sounding right up my alley, because reviews I read at the time were all over complaining about the small amount of tracks. I got it about half a year later anyway and loved it to bits! All the different ways you could go around these tracks was awesome! At the time it looked to me like they just put in 3 standard race tracks to make one big one.
My family always rented this game as a kid, but we didn't have a save pack so we would play the same few levels over and over again, never unlocking the later cars/levels. It wasn't until a few years ago when I got a copy and played to the secret levels that had evaded me for decades.
The shortcuts and track designs are incredible. Massive for the time. I love how tracks had a separate starting and ending sections that you'd only race on the first/last laps.
The shortcuts and track designs are incredible. Massive for the time. I love how tracks had a separate starting and ending sections that you'd only race on the first/last laps.
its not really revisionist, but it does depend on what games you like. Like racing ,wrestling, platformer, and fps? n64 is great. want to play the hottest fighting games at the time, any rpg, the beginnings of the survival horror genre or, the big insurgance of stealth games like syphon gilter and metal gear, then your out of luck. i owned both and the n64 droughts were real.
Nintendo Power got me so hyped for this game, and it delivered. Incredible title. The cars are so tight and weighty in their handling, and the courses are WORLDS onto themselves, with each lap lasting multiple minutes. Each time you start a new lap, you're thinking, "What detours do I want to take this time," because you can't see everything on a single lap — on Mount Mayhem, for example, if you take the scenic route across the bridge and through the canyon, you'll bypass the UFO hidden in the caves below. Speaking of which, Mount Mayhem is a god-tier snow world that I still revisit around Christmastime to this day (the N64 being the most nostalgic and magical system to dust off at Christmas, of course).
That was also the magazine I had! You got it right, it was Tips and Tricks Magazine, and I remember the beautiful hand drawn maps as well. I gotta see if I can track down those photos, though I wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't find them. I spent hours just studying those maps, and best part is, the game itself actually matched the maps for beauty.
Another part similar to that I really liked - the beginning of the track on lap 1 and the ending of the track on lap 3 were always different and unique. I always thought that was such a cool touch.
I can't some people complained about the lack of tracks. You gotta be like the spoiled kid who whines about not getting a BMW in the right color.
Not a criticism for me. If they tried to have more tracks, the tracks would have sucked.
Guys, I feel that reviving this thread is the right thing to do. Man, this game is so amazing; probably the best arcade racer of all time. The level design is just so creative and interesting, with more shortcuts in a race track than most games would have in their entirety. It also handles like a dream, so effortless and perfect for the shortcut bonanza that the game is! If I was VW's CEO, I would make sure to pay EA every single dollar needed to revive this masterpiece on modern consoles. I miss this shortcut-heavy arcade racing era, such as San Francisco Rush and 2049, Crash Team Racing and others. Still waiting for the (hopefully) eventual arcade racer comeback; I'll do so patiently, replaying the based Beetle's Adventure Racing on N64 :)
Brilliant game that looked astonishing at the time, with some amazing secrets.
Also Beetle Battle ftw
Also Beetle Battle ftw