BC Racers is a racing game developed and published by Core Design as a spin-off of the then-popular Chuck Rock series. It was originally released for the Sega Mega CD in 1994, before subsequently seeing ports to the Sega 32X, PC and 3DO the following year. Despite its British roots, the 32X version was released exclusively in North America, where it was published by U.S. Gold's short-lived publishing label Front Street Publishing.
Story
BC Racers takes place in the Chuck Rock universe, where a millionaire playboy caveman, Millstone Rockafella, has organized a bike race. The winner will receive the Boulderdash Bike.
Gameplay
BC Racers is a one or two player bike racing game, similar in nature to F-Zero and Super Mario Kart (and similar "mode 7" titles) on the Super Nintendo. Tracks are flat, with scenery and racers being represented by 2D sprites. There are four difficulty settings; easy, medium, hard, and rockhard, each with their own set of eight tracks (making for a total of thirty-two tracks in the game). Each track needing four laps to complete, and there are eight track themes including desert wastes, volcanic areas, and massive jungles.
Each bike in BC Racers comprises of two characters, one who controls the bike, and another who rides in a side car whose purpose is to attack other players. There are no power-ups in BC Racers, however the sidecar rider can hit opponents similar to the mechincs in Road Rash. Bikes take damage, and if an opponent is forced to crash or break down. extra points are rewarded. Damage to the bike can be reversed by collecting power-ups near the starting line.
In the Mega CD version of the game, a two player cooperative mode is offered, where player one controls the acceleration and player two controls the sidecar, steering and turbo features. This was replaced in the 32X version by more traditional split-screen play (in which much of the scenery is removed to maintain a high frame rate).
Production Credits
For Core Design, LTD.
Carving Out the Code: Martin Gibbins, John Kirkland, Stefan Walker, Sean Dunlevy
Cave Painters: Toby Gard, Stuart Atkinson, Joby Wood
Howling at the Moon and Drumbeating: Nathan McCree, Martin Iveson
For U.S. Gold, Inc.
Special thanks to: Mike Schmitt, Brian Schorr, Mac Senour, Tom Marx, Frank Hom, Dan Wong, Caroline Trujillo, Jill De Maria, Kelly Lindlar, Frank Alizaga, Alison Nichols, Lee Wilkinson, Mr. Free Time
Physical Scans
Mega CD Version
|
77
|
Sega Retro Average
|
| Based on 4 reviews
|
|
|
32X Version
|
79
|
Sega Retro Average
|
| Based on 7 reviews
|
| Publication
|
Score
|
Source
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| Consoles +
|
80
|
№44, p117
|
| Computer & Video Games
|
83
|
№162
|
| MAN!AC
|
68
|
|
| Mean Machines Sega
|
85
|
№31, p64/65
|
| Player One
|
89
|
|
| Sega Pro
|
88
|
№45, p82/83
|
| Top Consoles
|
60
|
№5, p90/91
|
|
