Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Yes, pointless.

As much as we love our Wii, it's not exactly creaking under the weight of great racing titles. There's Game Night favorite Mario Kart Wii, which is really fun, but that already comes with its own wheel, which works surprisingly well. And after that, we have (in order of GameRankings.com score) Excite Truck, MX vs. ATV Untamed, Speed Racer, and Cars, followed by fourteen other depressing drives.

None of which is intended as a slur on Logitech's new force feedback wheel for the Wii, which actually looks and sounds excellent. Releasing in November for $99.99 (!), the Logitech Speed Force Wireless features built-in gas and brake controls, a comfy-looking expandable lap rest, a wireless USB receiver and, naturally, full force feedback.

It is almost certainly the best possible way to play Cruis'n, GT Pro Series, and Wacky Races: Crash & Dash.


[Via press release]

Based on what you've all been saying in the comments, we're not expecting any of you to care about the Wii release of Rock Band. Aside from it, there isn't anything else of interest releasing this week, though. And when we say nothing of interest, we mean it. Just take a look for yourselves.

Wii releases this week:

• Rock Band
• Wacky Races: Crash & Dash
• Puzzler 2K

So, will your wallet be taking a break this week? Plan on picking up any of these new releases?

Gamefly was right again! Earlier this week, we spied a page on the online rental service for a Wacky Races game on the Wii and DS. Sure enough, Eidos confirmed Wacky Races: Crash & Dash this morning, and dished out the first information and media in the process.

Neither the trailer or the screens feature anything in the way of traditional behind-the-car gameplay, but we do know that there's 24 tracks, and multiplayer for four racers. During races, players collect "Wacky Widgets" to gain "Wacky Powers," which we presume allow you to do stuff like thrash your opponents with giant mallets (or something similarly zany).

All the official characters will feature, which means Peter Perfect in his Turbo Terrific, the Ant Hill Mob in their Bullet Proof Bomb, Penelope Pitstop, and, of course, Dick Dastardly and his sniggering hound, Muttley. Eidos is planning a June release for the title, though surely this needed to appear two months before Mario Kart Wii, rather than two months after, to stand a chance? Mind you, for what it's worth, this blogger does have reasonably fond memories of playing the Dreamcast game. It'd be great if this could become a viable alternative to Nintendo's own racer!


[Via press release]

According to a Gamefly listing, Eidos will release a Wii/DS game called Wacky Races in June. It's entirely likely that this will be a racing game based on the moribund Hanna-Barbera cartoon, which featured road races between Dick Dastardly (and Muttley), who we vaguely remember as being annoying jerks, and a bunch of characters nobody remembers.

This wouldn't be the first time a Wacky Races game has been released in the 37 years since the show ended. Atlus published a NES platformer starring Muttley, and in 2000 Infogrames published a cel-shaded-looking PS2/Dreamcast racing game. We don't really understand the continued publisher interest in Wacky Races -- it was an okay cartoon, but doesn't seem to be especially popular or relevant today. Perhaps these publishers are simply extremely terrified of coming up with original characters for a kart racer.

[Via GoNintendo]