''BC Racers'' is a

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic raci ...

released by

Core Design Core Design Limited (known as Rebellion (Derby) Ltd between 2006 and 2010) was a British video game developer based in Derby. Founded in May 1988 by former Gremlin Graphics employees, it originally bore the name Megabrite until rebranding as Co ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

for the

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

, and in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

for the

Sega 32X The 32X is an add-on for the Sega Genesis video game console. Codenamed "Project Mars", it was designed to expand the power of the Genesis and serve as a transitional console into the 32-bit era until the release of the Sega Saturn. The 32X ...

, the

3DO 3DO is a video gaming hardware format developed by The 3DO Company and conceived by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. The specifications were originally designed by Dave Needle and RJ Mical of New Technology Group, and were licensed by third ...

, and

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

. The game was co-designed by

Toby Gard Toby Gard (born 8 June 1972) is an English video game designer and consultant. He is the co-creator of Lara Croft, the fictional protagonist of the video game franchise ''Tomb Raider'' (1996–present). Lara Croft was awarded a ''Guinness World ...

, who later co-created

Lara Croft Lara Croft is a character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise ''Tomb Raider''. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic British adventurer and archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins arou ...

. ''BC Racers'' mixes a racing simulation by mixing with a "

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

" theme. It is the third game in the '' Chuck Rock'' series, despite the Chuck Rock connection not being prominent.

Plot

The millionaire playboy caveman Millstone Rockafella has organized a BC bike race, the winner of which will receive the Ultimate Boulderdash Bike. Six groups of riders - one driving, one deploying weapons from the

sidecar A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, Scooter (motorcycle), scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. The combination of a motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''rig'', ''outfit' ...

- from all around the prehistoric world will use their rock-powered sidecars to compete for this prize.

Gameplay

''BC Racers'' has four difficulty settings: Easy, Medium, Hard and Rockhard. Each of the settings has eight different circuits, making a total of 32 circuits in the game. There are also eight themes, from desert wastes to active volcanoes and massive jungles. The tracks need four laps to complete, and feature many special elements specific to the circuit's setting. Unusually for a game of this type, there are no

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a Game mechanics, game mechanic. This is in contrast to an Item (game), item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that ca ...

s, except for a "turbo" that the bikes can trigger every few seconds. Both of the bikes' riders can use physical attacks to injure other drivers. If the bike gets beaten enough, it crashes out, giving the player extra

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

. The same thing can happen to the player's bike. Some

ports Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of makefiles and Patch (Unix), patches provided by the BSD-based operating systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, as a simple method of installing software or creating binary packages. T ...

of the game include a split-screen two player mode. The Sega CD version instead has a two-player cooperative mode (one of the players controls the driver, while the other controls the fighting, steering and turbo). Some of the riders in ''BC Racers'' come from other famous

games, such as Chuck Rock and Chuck Rock Junior. Others are obvious references to several real-world characters, such as Brick Jagger, Sid Viscous and Jimi Handtrix (referencing

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

Sid Vicious Simon John Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the second bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. After his death in 1979 at the age of 21, he remai ...

and

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

Development

Jeremy Smith of Core Design said the original Sega CD version took "eight or nine months" to develop. Its working title was "Chuck Rally".

Reception

Reviewing the Sega CD version, ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' criticized the

pixelated Pixelization (in British English pixelisation) or mosaic processing is any technique used in editing images or video, whereby an image is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. It is primarily used for censorshi ...

landscapes, minimal sound effects, and difficult controls when using a three-button controller, but praised the comical graphics and "lightweight" tone, and recommended it as a decent title for younger gamers. ''Digital Press'' gave the Sega CD version 7 out of 10, praising the controls and music, but they criticized the graphics. In their review of the 32X version, ''GamePro'' commented that the graphics are sharper than in the Sega CD version, but look much worse during actual gameplay due to the choppy

frame rate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (Film frame, frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and moti ...

and prominent slowdown, especially during two-player mode. They nonetheless concluded that ''BC Racers'' will appeal to the gamers due to its numerous tracks, humorous attacks, and simultaneous two-player action. '' Next Generation'' reviewed the PC version of the game and gave it two out of five stars, deeming it inferior to another kart title ''Super Karts''. Reviewing the 3DO version, a ''Next Generation'' critic rated it as the worst racing game on the 3DO to date, citing the lack of depth to the car handling, the ugly-looking courses, and overall outdated feel of the game. He gave it one out of five stars.

References

External links

* {{Core Design 1994 video games 32X games 3DO games Core Design games DOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Prehistoric people in popular culture Racing video games Sega CD games Split-screen multiplayer games Vehicular combat games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Nathan McCree Video games set in prehistory