Beetle Adventure Racing!

Superb track design, a bodacious battle mode and a fleet of everyone's favorite impish car peg BAR as the the most innovative racer in a long time, bar none.

The VW New Beetle may not be the fastest car on the market, but it's definitely one of the most intriguing. Even though the VW Beetle has represented peace, love and great gas mileage since the 1960s, this new racing game from Electronic Arts is no lovefest.

Beetle Adventure Racing has the look of a gritty realistic racing simulation, but it has the power-ups and huge jumps found in arcade racing games. You'll be driving shiny Beetles through movie theaters, over volcanoes, across a mini-Stonehenge, and over terrain that ranges from ice to sand. Apparently your Beetle is even equipped with a time travel option, because on one track you'll come face to face with a T-Rex. Now that's a feature that can raise the sticker price in a hurry!

Intriguingly, all this zaniness comes to you courtesy of two developers best know for their racing sims. EA's EA Sports arm gave us the realistic NASCAR 99, while Paradigm Entertainment co-developed F-1 World Grand Prix.

To be sure, Beetle Adventure Racing has plenty of sim-like touches. First-rate play control allows each of the three standard and eight hidden cars to respond differently, depending on its handling, acceleration and top-speed characteristics. Tactical downshifting plays as big a role here as it did in F-1 WGP. Fog and popping are virtually non-existent, even in two-player vs. mode.

Putting the "Adventure" in "Beetle Adventure Racing" are some of the trickiest tracks to grace any racer. Within the fairly simple Coventry Cove course lurk shortcuts through train tunnels and over a sailboat. The most complex track, Metropolitan Madness, is a virtual honeycomb of driveable alleys, parking lots, train tracks, warehouses, movie theaters and hotel halls. Exploring it is just like, well, exploring a real city -- except there's no police officer to pull you over.

The two regular and four hidden courses are long, easily taking three minutes or more for each lap. All races last three laps, with the shortened last lap tailing off into an all-new finishing stretch.

You can't see many of the choicer shortcuts until you've practically passed them, while others lie concealed between boulders, shrubbery and other cleverly placed obstacles. Carefully placed in almost every shortcut is at least one Bonus Box.

In all, each track has 100 bonus points taking the form of Bonus Boxes worth as many as 10 points apiece. Naturally, the more artfully concealed Bonus Boxes are worth more. If you collect 50 bonus points, you'll win a continue, which will help your quest in Championship mode to unlock hidden tracks. Collect all 100 points in a track and you'll open up a hidden Beetle Battle arenas.

Because the devious developers have scattered Bonus Boxes hither and yon, you won't be able to score a perfect 100 unless you drive three different routes as you complete your three laps. To make matters more difficult, if you take too long to finish pointing, you'll be disqualified, as will all your earnings.

The unorthodox weaponry in the four-player Beetle Battle includes a soupy fog and a speed reducer. You can also find more conventional missiles and mines. Beetles that take too much damage cough up Ladybug icons. Be the first to collect a set of six Ladybug icons and, just like John Lennon, you'll be crowned head Beetle. Initially, Beetle Adventure Racing only allows you to battle in three arenas.

Much as Diddy Kong Racing did a couple of years ago, Beetle Adventure Racing has broken the rules of the racing genre and set some new ones. Any player with a taste for high-octane action should take this Pak for a wild ride.

Source:

www.nintendo.com

Wenn Sie die Straße verlassen, beginnt das Abenteuer!

**Superschnelle Action

Super-Crashs

Starke Strecken!

Aua!

Fahrspaß pur!**

Fahren Sie, wo Sie wollen! * Suchen Sie sich Ihren eigenen Weg * Hinter jeder Kurve warten Überraschungen auf Sie

Tun Sie, was Sie wollen! * Heben Sie mit Ihrem Käfer ab * Kämpfen Sie gegen vier Käfer

Source:

Back of Box (German)

In Beetle Adventure Racing you can leave the road behind and drive anywhere you want. Start out with a Single Race or take on a friend in Duel Mode, then jump into a Championship Season to uncover hidden tracks. If you prefer smashing to dashing, duke it out with up to four players in a Beetle Battle where free-for-all bashing mayhem rules! * Drive the world's coolest car in a variety of styles! * Smash bonus crates for a nitro boost or bonus points! * Giant jumps launch your car into the stratosphere! * Shortcuts and secrets around every corner! * Rumble Pak™ compatible!

Based around the ever-popular Volkswagen "New Beetle," Beetle Adventure Racing brings a new definition of fun to driving games. Racing against the other cars is the obvious goal of the game, but look a little deeper and there is so much more to be discovered - that's where the "adventure" part kicks in. Discover cleverly hidden routes, hone your driving skills to accomplish those difficult driving feats, smash through objects of all types to collect bonus points or simply have fun with hidden surprises, and do it all in high-speed, over-the-top action to keep moving on to new adventures. Perform well enough and earn new options as different cars and exciting new tracks become available. Don't feel like racing? Just drive and explore some of the lushest and most detailed scenery ever to grace a console game.

Tracks: Start off with a romp through an English-style countryside in "Coventry Cove" (watch out for that telephone booth!) Things get a little cooler in "Mount Mayhem" (what's a ski slope doing here?) Moving on from there, catch some hot action at "Inferno Isle" (and a lovely drive through a well-known theme park!) "Sunset Sands" inspires with a combination of wide-open terrain and mysterious tunnels and caves. "Metro Madness" looks inspired by a certain gambling town we all know of, but you have never seen some of these back streets! Finally, it gets over-the-top with "Wicked Woods" looking something like a Halloween night-mare gone bad!

Cars: As suggested by the name, the car is the one and only New Beetle - Motor Trend Magazine's 1999 Import Car of the Year. But it doesn't just stop there - several varieties of handling and performance options let you pick the car best suited for your own driving needs. And we have got your color with eleven different colors to choose from. Be good and there's a bunch more car options coming your way!

Game Modes: Time Trial lets you practice your best driving moves or maybe just go exploring the vast tracks. Championship is all out racing against the other cars - unless you really know your way around. Duel Mode pits you against your best friend in a one-on-one driving frenzy. Beetle Battle lets up to four players duke it out in nine different battle arenas. The objective is to collect (and keep!) six different colored bug icons hidden in the arena, while also keeping your own car's power meter up. The problem is that the icons change colors, so your timing needs to be just right. And if that's not enough, stealing of icons from other players is definitely allowed!

Beetle Adventure Racing - an innovative approach to how players engage in gaming, fusing the fun and explorative nature of adventure games with the intense and competitive excitement of racing!

Source:

Paradigm Website

The Adventure Begins When You Leave The Road

(Image captions) * Smashing, Bashing Fun * Ultra-Fast Nitro Blast * Crash and Dash * Incredible Shortcuts

FEATURES

**LOCAL CARS!

LOCAL SPEECH!

GO ANYWHERE!**

Choose your own routes

Find Surprises at every turn

DO ANYTHING!

Grab big time air

Engage in four-car mayhem

Source:

Back of Box - N64 (AUS)