Wacky Races (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Atlus's 1992 license-based platformer for the NES, Wacky Races.

After a bungled attempt to cheat his way to victory in the Wacky Races, Dick Dastardly finds himself in hot water once again. Luckily for him, his asthmatic dog/under-appreciated best friend Muttley is there to fish him out of trouble.

Based on the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon series from the late 1960s, Wacky Races for the NES plays out across three no-holds-barred rally races, each presented as an episode split into multiple legs.

This was the first video game to be based on the Wacky Races IP, and unlike the games that followed afterward, this one isn't a kart racer - it's an action-platformer. Muttley has to hop and bite his way through ten hazard-filled stages and defeat the rivals who wait at the end of each. Using a Konami shooter-style power-up system, he can collect bones to upgrade his abilities, allowing him to toss bombs, shoot sonic barks, and glide through the air by using his tail as a propeller.

Wacky Races is quite similar to two other platformers Atlus put out around this time, Rockin' Kats (   • Rockin' Kats (NES) Playthrough  ) and Widget (   • Widget (NES) Playthrough  ). It's full of bright colors, the character sprites are large and expressive, and being aimed at the younger crowd, the game is easy to pick up and play thanks to its comfortable controls and its tempered level of difficulty.

Unfortunately, most people never got the chance to play it: it was a late release for the NES that went largely ignored in its time, and its limited production run became an excuse for resellers to charge exorbitant amounts for copies on the second-hand market. Don't let that stop you, though. If it looks good to you, I'd certainly say it's worth giving a shot via "modern means."
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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