Big Red Racing

Game: Big Red Racing
Developer: Big Red Software
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1996
Stephen's Rating: 5/10

Big Red Racing is an unusual 3D racing game released in 1996.

Basic Plot

None.

Gameplay

Big Red Racing is a third person "comic" 3D racing game.

The game was broken up into the various courses which could be raced on. Each course had a choice of two different vehicles to race with. Courses weren't always "tracks" - there were rivers for boat racing, helicopter racing, many different kinds of terrain and vehicles.

Players could customise their driver (look, colour) as well as the colour and decal on their vehicle before a race.

A big part of the game was the audio. The menu, interface, and the game all contained "humorous" sound effects and commentary.

Positives

The game engine itself was pretty advanced for the time. My brother and I would play the game and purposely not complete the race, instead we'd just explore the maps and do jumps. One thing we often did was slide down hillsides which would create a "surfing" effect.

Negatives

The sound effects and commentary was truly painful. It wasn't even that they were bad quality, it was just really out of place and quite weird. I didn't get it, the game and the sound effects didn't work together. I can still hear that horrible stock American laughter sound from the menu in my head to this very day.

Likewise some of the fonts and style used in the interface were also pretty bad. It was as if the game engine and the interface and sound design were designed by two different teams with different agendas.

Memorable Moments

I only ever played the shareware version of the game which had two tracks.