Bethesda to publish Wheelspin

By Robert Purchese Published 4 August, 2009

It's a Wii racer from Archer Maclean.

Bethesda has snapped up Archer Maclean's Wii-exclusive racer Wheelspin, and plans a release sometime this autumn.

The setting is futuristic and the action is spread across interplanetary tracks where cars reach speeds of 650kph. Developer Awesome aims to push the hardware "further than any other Wii racing game to date", with 60fps and 480p widescreen set as the target.

"You have to see the graphics moving to believe it's coming out of a Wii," said Maclean in a statement.

Solo mode involves time, shortcut, find-the-spanner challenges, while Race mode shoves seven other cars into the picture. Battle mode, on the other hand, equips weaponry for a good old dust-up.

Split-screen multiplayer will work with the latter two modes, and developer Awesome Play will support Wii remote, nunchuk, GameCube controller and steering wheel control methods.

Archer Maclean's videogame career stretches back decades. He's been responsible for classics like IK+, Dropzone and Jimmy White Snooker, plus more recent hits like puzzler Mercury for PSP. He must be very old.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 3 years ago

    To be fair, Mercury was a bloody good game.

  • mkreku #2 3 years ago

    To be fair, IK+ was a bloody good game.

  • GrumpyLlama #3 3 years ago

    "You have to see the graphics moving to believe it's coming out of a Wii," said Maclean in a statement.

    So in the screen shots it looks like Wipeout HD but when its moving you can tell its a wii game. Is he saying the frame rate is poor? I'm not knocking the Wii just Mr Maclean's grasp of the English language

  • pauleyc #4 3 years ago

    To be fair, Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker was a bloody good game.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #5 3 years ago

    To be fair, Archer Maclean's Pool was a bloody good game.

  • aldo_14 #6 3 years ago

    "You have to see the graphics moving to believe it's coming out of a Wii," said Maclean in a statement.

    So in the screen shots it looks like Wipeout HD but when its moving you can tell its a wii game. Is he saying the frame rate is poor? I'm not knocking the Wii just Mr Maclean's grasp of the English language

    I was trying to figure out what the hell he meant too.

  • SirDespard #7 3 years ago

    So it's Wii-peout?

  • BadBoyBonner #8 3 years ago

    "You have to see the graphics moving to believe it's coming out of a Wii," said Maclean in a statement.

    As opposed to a still image of a PS3/360/PC game loaded off the SD card I presume.
    Edited by 1 at 04/08/09 @ 12:23

  • CallousB #9 3 years ago

    The early trailers looked pretty crap IMO. And that was down to some awful art and poor quality models (although that was six months ago).

    I sometimes wonder if devs think we've all forgotten how good some games on the Gamecube looked..as they seem to be trying to convince us they are working miracles with the Wii...when most are pushing sub Gamecube graphics on us.

  • JahB #10 3 years ago

    "You have to see the graphics moving to believe it's coming out of a Wii," said Maclean in a statement.

    the conduit people said the same; can't wait for DF to rip it apart

  • DocDaneeka #11 3 years ago

    Why hasn't Excitebots been released over here? What kind of cruel torture is this?

  • sarcasmoidosis #12 3 years ago

    "You have to see the graphics moving to believe it's coming out of a Wii," said Maclean in a statement.

    Texture rendering in motion, tearing, stuff like that probably compared to another console at the same resolution. Or he was just nuts.

  • loveless #13 3 years ago

    Shouldn't it be called Wiilspin?

  • SirClive #14 3 years ago

    Maybe the quote was actually a typo?

    I have played the game (under its US title of SpeedZone) and Archer is dead right about seeing it moving. The speed and fluidity of the graphics are amazing for what is basically a last gen console. You need to see it running at 60fps to understand.
    Edited by 1 at 04/08/09 @ 18:42

  • KDR_11k #15 3 years ago

    So it's Wii-peout?

    It's F-Wiiro.

  • Bezzy #16 3 years ago

    If this is anything like rollcage (and it sounds like it is), then I'm sold.