Wacky Wheels

The Good
Okay, I personally thought it was boring & repetitious, but my at the time 3 year old thought it was great and I had to fight her for the computer. It taught her how to use key combo and the characters were cute enough for her. She also seemed to enjoy crashing into things to watch the windshield crack up. She continued to play the game until she was about 7. Then it was boring for her.

The Bad
The more advanced levels were difficult for a younger child to control the acceleration and the steering. Once she hit around or 6 it was fine, but the game quickly palled for her after a while. Also the duck shoot of cute ducks on wheels upset her a little when she was 3 and 4 as did "running over" hedgehogs. She kept apologizing for interupting them when they were playing or working.

The Bottom Line
It is a racer. you control and animal and a race car. You have to control your speed and your vehicle around various tracks with various obstacles. The driver picks up hedgehogs for score and to use against other drivers. The drivers also pick up oil and bombs to put in other cars' paths. of course if they are missed, there is a chance you'll hit your own trap on your next lap. Players receive trophies for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place. Definitely for younger players.

The Good
Well, for one, it's damn cute! The 3D engine is really quite good (would even run on a 386) and the gameplay rocks.

The Bad
Sound effects are OK but get to you after a while.

The Bottom Line
A good shareware game, but not one I would define as "classic".

The Good
Another game were Apogee does what it does best: publish a low-profile, simple game that is FUN. Something not every commercial game remembered to do when it got lost on over-pretentious and grandiose game designs.

Wacky Wheels essentially takes the same premise behind Mario Kart, that is: assemble a cute-n-friendly cast of characters, that race against each other through equally cute courses on what must be 100 ccs karts. The racing aspect is obviously simple as hell, keeping it all arcadey, and with several power-ups that add different angles to the gameplay, such as weapons, turbo boosts, etc.

In other words, it's the perfect cute little game that doesn't go overboard on the cuteness, and delivers great gameplay and lots of fun. The graphics aren't drop-dead gorgeus, neither are the sounds. But the game plays fast & smooth, and never lets down.

Furthermore, you have a real winner with the addition of great multiplayer options, including different game modes, and the chance to play through serial/modem connections as well as on the same computer via split-screen (a feature that I really milked out at it's time).

The Bad
Only things I can think of is that the courses were all flat, (something that bugged me at the time).... and the fact that it is a sort of copy of Mario Kart.

The Bottom Line
Perfect game for kids of all ages. I see no better thing to introduce your kid to the wonders of pc gaming. And rest assured, there is no Mario in sight. Nor anything over marketized that will have your kids asking you to buy them a super-limited-edition action figure.