Lost & Found: Big Red Racing
I largely remember Big Red Racing as a scapegoat game. When I almost didn’t graduate, Big Red Racing was the culprit I chose. Not fair, I guess, but we all need a crutch now and then. Besides, at least I remember Big Red Racing in the first place. Not enough people seem to.This is weird, really, because Domark’s game has an awful lot of character. Sure, the handling’s a bit, um, rugged, the mid-1990s font choice on the menus makes the front-end look like a blend of ransom note and holiday eCard, and the globe-trotting voiceovers – during the five seconds before you venture into the options screen to silence them for eternity – start at Bewilderingly Awful and end at Hey, That’s Just Plain Racist. Beyond all that, though, this is a wonderfully jouncy knockabout racer that offers an unusual degree of freedom. Clouds of dust, flaming metal: it’s about as far from Gran Turismo as you’re ever likely to get, and I’ve probably put well over 100 hours into it, all things considered.As driving games go, it ranks amongst the most teeth-rattling, with a series of lumpy, bumpy, tumbledown tracks designed to throw you around even on the straights. When you do take a bashing, you’ll find the simple audio cues are gloriously crunchy, and you’ll also be inflicting damage on your own vehicle, too: try not to blow up, eh? Read more…
