Released in 1995

Available in

Genre: Racing

Originally released for the SEGA CD in 1994, the 32X version was released the following year. BC Racers is a Mario Kart clone, featuring cavemen and women racing it out on a variety of circuits. The vehicles are all two seaters, with one driver and another character who can hit their opponents. There are no collectable weapons, the way to win is by driving well and occasionally having to punch anyone who gets too close to you. Each time you complete a lap you are given a turbo boost you can use, which greatly speeds your bike up for a short amount of time.

The 32X version of the game offers smoother gameplay along with more colors and clearer graphics. It doesn't feature the cartoon sequences from the CD version, but then it also doesn't have the CD version's load times. From what I've read the CD version didn't have a split-screen multiplayer option, however the 32X version does feature this, with two different multiplayer modes.

The only issues I had was that the game window is a little bit small -about a third of it is taken up by stats -and certain tracks suffer from some slow-down. I would have also liked there to have been a time trial mode, as you can't select a circuit to practice on. But other than this BC Racers is worth looking into as a fun alternative to Virtua Racing Deluxe.

Each racer in the game has different stats, with some being slower than others but having more attack power, others being able to go really fast but are unable to take much damage etc. At the main menu, setting the race difficulty determines the circuits you'll race on -there are different circuit designs for each difficulty. The aim is to win the league by scoring the most amount of points. You don't have to win every race to win the league, but to get the most points you want to finish as high up as possible.

Your bike has a driver and a buddy, and you can hit opponents who are close to you by pressing the B button. Landing hits will decrease your opponent's energy bar, if it is reduced to nothing they will be forced to retire from a race. However you can also have this happen to you -if you get hit, or crash into walls or other objects, the energy bar will go down. The energy bar is represented by a green dinosaur, if this dinosaur is reduced to a skeleton you'll have to retire. You can fill up the energy bar be collected health items which are littered around the start/finish line.

Every time you complete a lap you will be given a turbo boost, which is activated by pressing the C button. Turbo boosts will give you a great boost of speed for a short distance, so use them wisely -it is quite easy to lose control if you try and take a corner, sending you off the track!

The game's multiplayer option allows two players to play splitscreen and compete against CPU opponents, or there is also a head to head option. This mode only has you and a friend play, whilst the CPU racers are absent.

-This game features Chuck Rock and his son, Junior, who both starred in platform games for the Genesis. Chuck Rock was released in 1991, whilst Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck was released in 1993.

-Toby Gard -who worked on this game as a designer and graphics artist -would later become famous for his work on the first Tomb Raider game.

-The cover art for the SEGA CD version features Roxy. The 32X art also features Roxy, but with considerably less clothing.