Beetle Adventure Racing!

1999 · Racing · Nintendo 64

About Beetle Adventure Racing!

Beetle Adventure Racing! (1999) is Paradigm and EA Canada's Nintendo 64 racer in which every car is a Volkswagen New Beetle, praised for its long, shortcut-filled tracks and four-player Beetle Battle mode.

Beetle Adventure Racing! in Depth

The main game is a championship of Novice, Advanced and Professional circuits, with a secret Bonus Circuit unlocked after the rest, and completing each circuit unlocks new cars and tracks. Finishing the Professional and Bonus circuits awards two special cars: the Alien Beetle, whose horn says "We come in peace" in an alien voice, and the Police Beetle, whose siren makes computer racers pull over. Tracks hide four kinds of crates. Point crates, worth 2, 5 or 10, lie mostly off the track on shortcuts and earn continues, and finding all 100 points opens a new Beetle Battle arena. Nitro crates give a burst of speed, and three hidden Cheat crates per stage, announced with a "Groovy!", unlock a cheat menu, whose background hides the developers' faces.

Up to four can play. Two players can race on any unlocked track, and two to four can play Beetle Battle, a vehicular combat mode in which they collect six coloured ladybugs, try to destroy each other and race for the exit once the ladybugs are gathered. Single Race pits one player against computer cars on unlocked tracks. The play is similar to EA's own Need for Speed series.

Making Beetle Adventure Racing!

In the late 1990s EA Canada and Paradigm were working on a Nintendo 64 Need for Speed with exclusive tracks, cars and Rumble Pak support. The designers wanted something to set it apart, and when Electronic Arts signed a deal with Volkswagen around the New Beetle, released the year before, the project became Beetle Adventure Racing. It was released in 1999 and in Japan, published by Electronic Arts Square, that November.

It received universal acclaim. Next Generation saw it as a rival to Top Gear and Need for Speed, The Electric Playground called its scenery "stunning" and it the first "truly addictive" Nintendo 64 game of 1999, and IGN's Peer Schneider named it one of the best racers on the system while regretting its few tracks and cars and "generic" drum and bass. It sold over 320,000 copies in the US, small by EA standards; senior producer Hanno Lemke blamed "terrible box art and a virtually non-existent marketing presence" and the many rival racers on the console.

Beetle Adventure Racing! Trivia

It began as Need for Speed 64, cancelled when EA signed a deal with Volkswagen for a New Beetle game.
In Australia it was released as HSV Adventure Racing, with Holden Special Vehicles models in place of the Beetles.
A PlayStation port was planned but cancelled for technical reasons.
Its breakbeat soundtrack was composed by Phil Western, Scott Blackwood and Brenden Tennant.
A planned sequel, Adventure Racing 2, dropped the Beetle licence for unlicensed cars before being cancelled.