Wheelspin

By Dan Pearson Published 12 August, 2009

WiipEout?

Archer MacLean is a name you might well recognise. He's the founder of legendary dev team Awesome Developments and the author of back-in-the-day classics such as IK+. More recently he's produced titles such as Archer MacLean's Mercury. In short he's got a fair few classics on his CV - so it's good to know his studio, Awesome Play, is working on a brand new title.

Wii-exclusive Wheelspin (known as SpeedZone outside of Europe) is a fast-paced futuristic racer with a firm foundation in arcade accessibility. We sat down with an advance copy to see how MacLean's first game in four years is shaping up.

Aesthetically, it's hard not to draw parallels with the likes of Rollcage, WipEout and even Trackmania. There are 30 tracks, equally distributed between the three modes of Race, Time Trial and Battle. They tend to be sparsely designed yet reasonably elaborate in terms of layout.

Banking curves and tight loops twist above barren landscapes while geometric tunnels barrel through flatly textured hillsides. Cars are angular, near-future affairs, retaining wheels yet spouting jet-like flames. There are speed boosters, upgrades and huge jumps. The focus, despite the inclusion of a racing line guide, seems to be on frantic fun rather than the split-second shaving of lap-times.

You've probably had a look at some of the screens now. You might have had a knowing little chuckle to yourself, disparaging the Wii's graphical grunt under your breath. You might have raised a critical eyebrow and muttered, 'N64'.

'Wheelspin' Screenshot 1

Banked curves and twisting loops are key features of many tracks.

Fair enough. When seen statically Wheelspin is not a pretty game. The car models are simplistic, even compared to those in other Wii racers such as Excite Truck. Background landscapes are largely empty and track furniture is virtually non-existent. Track surfaces are flat and relatively lifeless. However, watch the thing in motion and suddenly these details matter a great deal less. Wheelspin's gameplay, and its appeal, is all about speed.

First up there's the impressive 60fps frame-rate. It's incredibly smooth, something which can't be fully appreciated from the YouTube video. A fully upgraded vehicle is capable of reaching virtual speeds of 650 km/h - an arbitrary figure you might think, but one which seems a great deal more relevant once the controller is in your hands.

True, graphical fidelity has been sacrificed for a higher frame-rate, but stopping to admire the scenery is hardly the point. Solid 60fps is a notable achievement on Wii, and here it has been used to great effect - enhancing the essential nature of the experience. The stylised design makes the most of the Wii's graphical power and on some of the more outlandish tracks, such as the black-and-neon environment seen briefly in the video, the two-fingered salute to realism oozes class.

The arcade style was prevalent throughout the parts of the game presented for preview, from the PES-style stat charts for cars to the spanners scattered around tracks, offering extra cash for upgrades. Cars can be enhanced in a marketplace between races, with bolt-on additions shaping performance. It's no Race Pro but realism is clearly not the intention anyway.

Battle mode is the most obvious example of this philosophy in action; scurrying around arenas collecting sci-fi weaponry to blast away instantly re-spawning opponents has no relation to real-world racing. It's pure escapism, and all the better for it.

The default control system makes use of the Wii remote (although classic, GameCube and Logitech Wheel control options are available). Turns are implemented by tilting the controller while acceleration, braking and weapon control are button activated. Initially, it's easy to be cynical about how this will work - there's not MotionPlus support and floaty, inaccurate vehicle control can be a problem with Wii racers.

It doesn't help that I am a haptic numpty with the motor control of an rheumatic hippo, which means I often struggle to fine-tune my motions when using the remote. As hilarious as this might be for my Wii Bowling opponents it results in a frustrating game experience when subtle control is required.

However, Wheelspin's control system seemed somehow compensate for this innate lack of ability. I soon found myself scooting around hairpin bends and swooping across ramped intersections in a decidedly non-Pearsonian style, and even staying on the track 75 per cent of the time.

Whether this is indicative of simplicity or accuracy was hard to tell during the short playtesting session, especially as I only experienced early courses in basic cars. All the same, even the least of co-ordinated Wii owners should be able to master the handling in Wheelspin thanks to the well-designed controls.

'Wheelspin' Screenshot 2

Eight-player mode in full effect.

The game also features an impressive range of multiplayer options. By utilising the nunchuck as a separate controller with a similar tilting action, Wheelspin enables full local eight-player games. In this mode, individual screens are spaced around a central map.

On anything less than a relatively large screen it'll be a little fiddly to ascertain what's happening, but those who boast a 50-incher should have no problems at all. Obviously. This is where Wheelspin looks set to shine brightest - as a sofa-based competitive multiplayer game where victory is only a well-aimed dead arm away.

That's an experience which has all but disappeared on the other consoles in the age of online gaming - they're often striving so hard to win prizes for prettiness that multiple iterations of environments aren't possible. Many us who cut our teeth on Goldeneye and Super Mario Kart feel the absence; the difference in banter when the person you're thrashing is 500 miles away is often marked, and sometimes grates. Here's hoping that Wheelspin will present us with opportunities for more sofa-based multiplayer fun.

Wheelspin is due to be published by Bethesda in Europe this autumn. It will be fully playable at the fabulous Eurogamer Expo - get your tickets now.

Picture of Dan.

About Dan Pearson

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Pearson archive page.

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Comments (45) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • TriggerHippie #1 3 years ago

    Bring back Rollcage. I have the fondest memories of playing hotseat with my mates on the Playstation with Rollcage and its sequal. This looks quite good, hope its better than that.

  • Darren #2 3 years ago

    I never ever EVER thought I'd see a split-screen mode for eight players so that really is an amazing technical achievement even if it must be as confusing as hell to use.

  • Eraysor #3 3 years ago

    All I can say is where is my F-Zero WiiX?

  • jonbwfc #4 3 years ago

    Um. I t doesn't look much better in motion to be honest with you. OK, very smooth. But the PS2 could have done that. It's no better graphically than the first SSX game and that was a PS2 launch title. Given it's an alpha version though, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say it's going to improve some between now and release.

    It reminds me a lot of XGRA which was one of my favourite games of the last gen. But please don't try to sell this on how it looks, because it's really not a good idea in the context of the likes of WipEout HD.

    Jon

  • el_vicio #5 3 years ago

    I don't know - HiSpeed Racers can be fast and look awesome at the same time - look back at F-Zero GX for the cube.
    Thus, not interested in this.

  • toy_brain #6 3 years ago

    Apologies for the trolling, but when I first saw this game I thought it was something Midasinteractive was publishing.
    8-player splitscreen and 60fps are probably decent technical feats, but the graphics really do lack any sort of personality, and the gameplay vid looked like something that had been done several times before... 10 years ago.

    As always, I'd love to be proven wrong though.

  • robg #7 3 years ago

    What I like is that while 60fps on a Wii is a good technical achievement, actually because of the limitations of the system they don't have to go to the nth degree in making textures and models, and can devote seemingly far more time to gameplay and making the thing fun.

  • MyPointIs #8 3 years ago

    I am sold already. On top of the 60 FPS on a Wii, the physics, gameplay, and AI all look topnotch. Also those multiplayer matches look insane, and the idea of having two people playing using one wiimote and one nunchuck is brilliant.

    But. BUT. I think they underestimated how shallow people can be when choosing a game. It's going to be a tough sell (new unknown IP + those graphics). I think they should've chosen a stronger art direction and bumped up the graphics on single player mode.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #9 3 years ago

    I agree with the el_vicio. F-Zero was blistering fast, beautiful and, iirc, offered 4-player split screen racing. 8-player split screen racing is a technical achievement, but is it really necessary and (more importantly) will it be playable on anything other than a huge TV?

    This isn't minimalist, it's just ugly.

    EDIT: And I'm by no means a graphic whore, but this doesn't have art direction it just has old and tired looking 'space racer' style tracks we've seen a billion times before.
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/09 @ 12:18

  • SleepyDeathFred #10 3 years ago

    I agree with jonbwfc and Pac-man, it looks just as horrid in motion. The Wii is actually capable of rendering textures I heard.

  • Canyarion #11 3 years ago

    Great, it took him 4 years to copy F-Zero and to combine it with Trackmania.

    And @Darren, I think Micro Machines for the N64 features 8-player local online. You had to share your controller with a buddy. Edit: but it wasn't splitscreen.
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/09 @ 12:33

  • Les #12 3 years ago

    Split-screen multiplayer is the only multi-player worth playing as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately it doesn't work well with having a job and friends living all over the country... :(

  • spekkeh #13 3 years ago

    I'm not normally one to complain about graphics, and of course it's more important to know if the game plays right. But if you're so obviously an F-Zero clone, it shouldn't be a hell of a lot uglier than that gamecube incarnation.

  • seasidebaz #14 3 years ago

    @Darren:

    Street Racer for the PSOne did 8 player split-screen.

    13 years ago.

  • StooMonster #15 3 years ago

    60fps ... nice. Look forward to seeing some smooth racing action.

  • Genji #16 3 years ago

    No. Gamers aren't graphics whores. No sir.

  • Dizzy #17 3 years ago

    Who has 8 controllers???? Still local multiplayer is great... a lost art in the HD consoles.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #18 3 years ago

    @ Genji - there's a difference between wanting 20 billion polygons per second and wanting good art direction. I couldn't give a monkey's about smoke particles, shimmer and reflections or whatever are the latest techie 'wonders. I want great art direction no matter whether it's 2D, 3D or whatever.

    Super Mario Galaxy, MadWorld, Ragdoll Physics, Portal, Viewtiful Joe, XIII plus many more I lovely games rendered with a flair, style and panache but not with 'grunt'.

    This doesn't have any style whatsoever - it's generic and flat. Visually, this is to racers what The Conduit was to FPSs.

  • ChrisOTR #19 3 years ago

    It might be a fun game in its own right, but to compare it to Wipeout seems a bit laughable... It appears to have none of the style, for a start, and there's nothing in the review to suggest it has any of the control subtlety, either.

    DISCLAIMER: I love Wipeout!
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/09 @ 13:08

  • Xerx3s #20 3 years ago

    Pac-man ate my wife: Except that all those things that you mention that you don't care about are needed technological improvements to give you the things that you do care about (art). While the games that you mentioned are not the "next thing" in tech, everything that makes them is the fruit of tech pushers.

    A good game finds the balance between, tech, art & gameplay. If one of those things is missing, the game is a failure, no matter how good the rest is.

  • Senate #21 3 years ago

    out of curiosity, if burnout was able to look like it did on PS2 - and it was a fast game. Why the sacrifice here?
    Same for F-Zero I suppose on cube.

  • Darren #22 3 years ago

    @seasidebaz - I've never heard of the game and I had a PS. I'm guessing the game actually wasn't very good...

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #23 3 years ago

    @ Xerx3s

    I think you've missed my point entirely. I've not said anywhere that new tech doesn't lead to good looking games but there is sufficient flexibility in current tech to create beautiful games.

    Photoshop can create the most amazing looking images, but then so can a piece of charcoal on white paper. My point was that this game looks generic and tired and there's absolutely no justification for that.
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/09 @ 13:34

  • mashk #24 3 years ago

    Looks like ass.

  • brokenkey #25 3 years ago

    looks like Speed Racer.

  • Artemus #26 3 years ago

    @TriggerHippie

    Rollcage was awesome. I preferred it to Wipeout.

  • lasermink #27 3 years ago

    Stunt Car Racer for the nineties :p

  • DodgyPast #28 3 years ago

    Really is ridiculous that if you want split screen racing you have to go to the Wii which in theory is the worst place for it due to lack of horsepower and lower resolution.

    /ponders some kind of comment about Wii owners have lives and XBox owners have LIVE

    Split screen multiplayer should be mandatory on every racing game.

    Strangely enough the 8 man option is tempting for gatherings of friends as we normally have access to a 50" when we do this.

  • K-Project #29 3 years ago

    Didn't reckon all that much to the video, feeling much like you guys that the graphics are lacking any personality, but if the game delivers some much needed racing fun on the Wii then I may yet be convinced. At the end of the day Excite Truck looks like crap, but it's a fantastic game. Still feel this looks like Extreme G on the N64 but with cars instead of bikes though, but fingers crossed...

  • StooMonster #30 3 years ago

    Used to link two Amigas together to play two player 'Stunt Car Racer' when we should've been working; that and Populous too.

    Ah, nascent multiplayer gaming back in the 1980s. :)

  • Arwin #31 3 years ago

    Well, HD gamers could always try something like the excellent Motorstorm 2: Pacific Rift, which features split-screen for up to 4 players. Warhawk does this too. And both even feature decent motion controls. :)

    For more than 4 players there are the sports games of course, but if we're doing this blast-from-the-past thing, my very best memories are for Micro Machines v3 (and to a slightly lesser degree its more accessible sequal Micro Maniacs), which supported two multi-taps for eight player gaming as well as controller sharing, which worked fabulously well, great fun! I lived on a student dorm back then so we actually got to use it. ;)

    By the way, Jimmy White Whirlwind Snooker for the Win. I had it on Atari ST and still love this game, playing it on STEEM it's still really and surprisingly good, realistic and funny (balls making faces at you, virtual flies buzzing around and sitting on your screen, hilarious). Would love a remake with the graphics of the upcoming Hustle Kings and the PSMC controller. You could even do both a MotionPlus and PSMC version, to share some development costs.
    Edited by 2 at 12/08/09 @ 15:07

  • pikemon #32 3 years ago

    60 fps on Wii is NOT the problem - we expected that during the GameCube days already, and I guess Wii graphics aren't much different from the previous generation's consoles. To have 8p split-screen run at 60 fps doesn't sound like an easy task however, considering Mario Kart Wii cannot even do 4p at 60 fps.

    60 fps seems to be a problem on PS3 & X360, something that initially amazed the hell out of me... but I guess the HD resolution really makes it a pain to achieve that and not everybody does.

    ps. Wii has 4 GC controller ports, so it basically supports 8 separate controllers right out of the box... IF you're willing to count GC controllers in

  • oerhoert #33 3 years ago

    To be honest, the youtube video did absolutely nothing to convince me on this one. The track design looks bland in the video, the art direction is non-existent (why on earth race on gray asphalt-like stuff when it's THE FUTURE) and so on.

    It may turn out to be fun, but they really should postpone the thing and hire a decent graphical team to make it look somewhat distinct.

    Yeah, and: Rollcage was a mess compared to Wipeout, but I agree that it was a fun idea.
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/09 @ 20:35

  • dr_zoidthrob #34 3 years ago

    I'd love it to do well, mainly because it's British and a racing game... But that'll be the biggest problem for it - it's not a keep 'fit' game. Honestly, I hope it doesn't get buried under the morass of 'me-too' fitness games.

  • KDR_11k #35 3 years ago

    Racing games are popular with casual gamers because they like the concept of racing and they like doing it with their buddies in the same room. Mario Kart sold about as much as Wii Fit IIRC.

  • reflux #36 3 years ago

    Looks ALOT like the old PC-game Dethkarz (1998-1999, Melbourne House).
    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=jaARO__d1VY
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=jaARO__d1VY
    [/link]


  • coach_mcguirk #37 3 years ago

    They need to take that Alpha-build video down off youtube. It's shocking.

    Like the idea of the game though - loved Rollcage. Fingers crossed.

  • Gammerz #38 3 years ago

    Stunt Car Racer was a great game with tremendous "oh sh*t" vertigo induced driving moments. I used to play "stunt car racer" before my driving lessons. Maybe not the best of moves, but I passed 1st time and got the car back in one piece!
    Edited by 1 at 13/08/09 @ 00:00

  • RFturrican #39 3 years ago

    Let's just give it a chance when it comes out shall we? As usual you have some people jumping down it's throat before it can breathe saying it sucks and it lacks "art direction".... This isn't an Oscar winning movie you know, it is a game from a man who knows about good, simple gameplay. I do agree it could look a little better, but the fact is that as long as it plays well and brings entertainment to us all then it can't be bad.

    Still, wouldn't mind Ninty doing an 8 player online version of the SNES Mario Kart on Virtual Console.... What say you, Nintendo?

  • ShiroBen #40 3 years ago

    That looks really fun. I'll take smoothness over detail any day, although with that said a little more personality might be nice.

  • oupe #41 3 years ago

    As much as I dislike the graphics (even in motion), it really doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned the car could be a cube moving between two lines, shooting little pyramids. It's the gameplay that counts.

  • mkreku #42 3 years ago

    I didn't even know I was a graphics whore.. until I saw this :/

  • bionutz #43 3 years ago

    Rollcage was awesome. I played the PC version (won on all difficulty levels) and I still do now and then. Awesome! And the soundtrack oh yeah!

  • Bazfrag #44 3 years ago

    *Gasps at 8 player splitscreen

    Your kids may go blind, but at least they get proper social interaction :p
    Edited by 1 at 13/08/09 @ 20:43

  • electrolite #45 3 years ago

    Hmmm, looks a bit like XGIII, which I liked on the PS2, but the art direction's a bit dull as so many others have said. Mind you, I thought that when I first saw F-Zero X and then loved it, so wait and see I suppose, judge it when I see it in motion.

    As for 8-players splitscreen? Nice novelty, but controlling your steering with a nunchuk sounds like an idea that would make me kill people