SORE THUMBS - Video Game Review (PC)
Beetle Crazy Cup - "Herbie on Crack"
by Steve Egan

Remember the days of Herbie the Love Bug. Here were bits of plastic and rubber, scraps of steel and a drop of German inginuity that became the most unbeatable of racers. Herbie had personality. He smiled at you if you were liked or maybe he would even follow you home like a lost puppy dog if he were so smitten. Or if he did not like you puffs of carbon laden smoke or a piddle of oil on your ankle ensued. While Disney no longer makes movies in the grand genre of feel good racing, INFOGRAMES has tried to resurrect the lackadaisical attitude of days past by introducing Beetle Crazy Cup (BCC) for the PC platform.

The game has three different challenging levels and within each level exists five styles of races.

The best way to get a feel for the game before immersing yourself into a highly addictive racer is to do a couple of quick races to get the hang of the different types of competition. For instance, go and race the monster trucks. You are strapped into an extremely lifted and overly powerful Karman Ghia, Bug, or VW Truck. You are directed to complete 2 laps within a preset time limit. Sounds easy until you experience the challenged to climb, crawl, and fishtail your way through a varitable obstacle course. Along the way you must maneuver between cones and poles that penalize you second if knocked over. As the Monster Truck games difficulty increases so does the need to steer clear of the penalties as they severlyaffect your ability to make your two laps in the required time. This stage is by far the most difficult in BCC.

From there go to the buggy, speed, cross, or jump races and gear up for the Beetle Challenge. This is the selling point of the game, the coup de gras if you will. Racers start at the bottom rung of the races and earn money as you make challenge (and hopefully break) lap times, race times, and of course wins. You are given a car at the beginning of each round and if money allows you can upgrade. This is highly recommended. If you stick with the standard car you are almost pre-destined to lose, unless you have already familiarized yourself with the game (ie: you’ve won enough to feel confident.)

I found playability and replayability to be excellent. The cars have very predictable characteristics which makes it extremely easy to maneuver through all the rounds of the game. But not too easy. My fellow cohorts and I have been playing this game for several weeks now and have not gotten bored with it yet. We have all have gotten stuck in the final round of monster truck. We can’t finish it to save our lives. Thankfully, we didn’t wager our “members” or fist born against a record-breaking finish time.

The graphics are phenomenal. It makes evem the high-end console gaming system looks like handheld systems from the ’80’s (remember the 12-inch tall version of Donkey Kong?) in comparison. The cars all have a certain authentic look about them. The graphics are so astounding that shadows move across the car and ground as turns are made towards or away from the sun. This kind of accuracy and detail makes for entertaining visuals. All this with the most minimal of system and graphics requirements.

The sound is more than acceptable. The music is subtle and appropriately mixed. You can hear the sounds of birds and ocean waves as you blast by with your Karman Ghia, buzzing and tires sloshing through the sand.

This game is outrageous in its attempt to be realistic. When I speak of realism I am not referring to the graphics, which are excellent, as are most PC games. Never before have I seen a monster beetle with its 6ft tires and 400hp. In the real world that would probably only make it over a packed pile of manure. Never before have I seen a beetle capable of road speeds in excess of 250mph and turns on a dime at terminal velocity. Never before have I seen the revered but unreliable VW Thing, yes you can race one of those too, take such a beating and still pull through to first place. And the be-all-end-all of things I have never seen before has to be the Jump Karman Ghia. Jump car, give me a break. This land rocket, I only say that because rockets ARE attached to the back, is capable of speeds in excess of 290mph and can charge up multi story ramps and launch itself 120yds+ across a stadium lined football field. This unfathomable car has exhaust pipes that stick out some four feat from the back. Doesn’t the law require you to tie a red bandanna or towel to something like that?

Plain and simple, it’s not realistic in the slightest, kind of like Herbie, but BCC creators have pulled it off in fine style. With excellent graphics, great playability, more than acceptable race and ambient sounds, and excellent replayability it should be a game that you keep in your arsenal of productivity busters. Whatever your heart desires, BCC racing is bound to satisfy it.

Panel	Graphics	Sound	Playability	Replayability
Eric Schofield Editor-In-Chief	10	8	9	9
	I believe the last time I saw so many beautiful colors at one time was when I got a concussion playing basketball many years ago. The graphics are stunning with beautiful detail, shading, and lighting effects. The animation was smooth with virtually no hiccups in frame rates.	The sound effects are quite realistic in BCC and the music is very non-intrusive. As a matter of fact, the game was so captivating that I didn’t even notice the music. There was good audio detail between the different vehicles that you can drive and in the long jump competition, the nitro sounds awesome.	BCC is an easy game to start playing and most of all – it’s FUN! With numerous competitions to master, there’s something for everyone. Controlling the cars was relatively easy though mastering the race tracks takes some skill. Word of advice – use the hand brake, there’s virtually no way to win without it.	This game is incredibly addicting. It’s easy for novices to pick up and the Beetle Challenge mode makes progressing to higher levels of the game challenging. Staffers consistently go to BCC for quick breaks in their daily grind. BCC has logged countless hours of play at the office and I am sure countless more will be spent.
Lane Singletary Design Editor	9	9	10	9
	The sharpness and quality of the graphics are superb. Every detail in this game was outlined with precision and nothing was overlooked. The vehicles are rendered perfectly with nothing left out to question. The realism in this game is awesome with stadiums for monster truck competition and beach tracks for dune buggy racing.	The sound quality of this game is pretty good. A good set of computer speakers can really give this game justice. In monster truck mode you can hear every sound from cars getting crushed under you to the crowd applauding and screaming. Thumbs up for the sound effects.	This game rocks. Quick races, championship mode, and beetle cup challenge are the three modes of play in which you can get started. Quick races allow a player to challenge a specific course, one at a time. Championship mode allows you to advance to more difficult races as long as your point totals are sufficient. The beetle challenge is the most difficult and takes you through a mind bending. With high speed races in “Things” to jumping ramps with karman ghias loaded with nitrate, playability is not a problem.	With its playability rating high, of course its reaplayability would be just as good. Loads of fun await you as you crank up your monster truck or suped-up beetle for some hard, fast, and very competitive racing. With its high level of competition and each mode of play more difficult than the previous, completing the whole game could be months in the making. Good luck!!
Troy Parrott Marketing Manager	10	9.5	9	9.5
	To describe the graphics in BCC, phrases that come to mind are: Far Out, Cool Dude, and Austin Powers’ “Groovy Baby”. I was so amazed by the fantastic graphics that I found myself almost having flashbacks to the days when I was growing up on the commune. The vibrant colors that adorned the cars made the race seem more like a convoy of Deadheads heading to the next show than a chance at the next buggy trial.	Totally Tubular Dude! The only sound that could compare to this was the music that rocked a little farm in upstate N.Y. in the Summer of ’69. The backfires from the VW Vanagon in the Bonus Trial sounded realistic enough that I knew the creators of this game may have driven their own VW bus once upon a time. The crowd cheers during the monster truck and jump trials took me back to Eivel Kneivel’s death defying feats.	This game was made so that even the most novice of all players could easily set it up and get started without needing the assistance of a few Quaaludes and a bottle of Jim Beam. Seriously, I assure all you wa nabe BCC contestants, that this game will have you coming back for more. If not, then burn your draft card and call George Wallace…	Replaying a certain race/trial or switching to another challenge series can be done about as easy as it was for Scooby, Shaggy, and those meddling kids to solve another mystery. Its ironic that the one VW bus that kept beating me in the bonus trial looked an awful lot like the ‘Green Machine’. Playing with all these psychedelic colors now has me getting the munchies for some Scooby-Snacks of my own.
Charlie Baird Creative Director	10	8	9.5	9.5
	PC-based games allow for graphics far beyond that of console games, and Infogrames has more than taken advantage of the PC platform’s capabilities. Whether it’s glass shooting out from a junk car beneath a monster truck or the tidal ebb and flow as you race a buggy across the beach, this game has been well thought out and excellently executed.	Yes, the sound is good, but it could have been better. One highlight is the French Mick Jagger wannabe that gives the countdown for each race. Nothing like a frog with attitude. The engine sounds are different (there is a definite gurgle and pop plaguing all of the low-end cars), but the ambient sounds could use a little improvement.	The game navigation and controls are intuitive and easy to manage. Aside from the fact that these cars are hauling ass around the track at speeds that would cave in the front of a real VW, the cars react to course obstacles in a realistic manner. Driving a monster Beetle, you don’t just plow through a line of junk cars, you pitch and lumber your way across them. Very Nice.	It’s been 3 weeks and I still get sucked into trying to finish what seems like an impossible monster truck course. There are plenty of tracks, race modes and vehicles to choose from, though I wish that there were options for modifying the cars. I don’t see this game being uninstalled any time soon.