Classic British Motor Racing for Wii Reviews & Ratings by IGN

Oh, Data Design. Why do you hate us? We just wanna have a little fun with our Wii and here you are churning out disgrace after disgrace and calling them "games." Classic British Motor Racing is another in a long line of terrible offerings from the company, along with classics like Billy the Wizard: Rocket Broomstick Racing (2.0), London Taxi: Rush Hour (1.0), and Myth Makers: Orbs of Doom (2.9). The developer licensed 13 vintage cars from BMW and MG Rover. I'm going to assume that's where all the budget went and there just wasn't any money left over to make a game.



This is probably the most boring racing game I've ever played. The basic concept of cars racing to a finish line is here, but there isn't a single bell or whistle. The cars don't take any damage, the scenery is dull, and there aren't even any collision sound effects. All of the graphics are jaggy and blocky. Wins will unlock new cars and tracks, but that's not much of a reward for trudging through the game. There is one licensed pop song that plays during every race.



Before each race you're given plenty of time to psych yourself up as you wait for long loading times. I don't know what takes so much time to load. The game is polluted with nasty pop-up and terrible collision detection. Bushes, flower beds, and blimps all appear out of nowhere. On my very first race, right out of the gate I veered off road and into a mountainside -- but my car sailed through the wall into a void and fell into space. There is a track with a giant Ferris wheel in the background, but half the wheel is apparently invisible. When you run into other cars, sometimes they will vanish into thin air.



Drivers have no choice but to tilt the Wii-mote to steer their car. Now, I have never driven a classic British racer, but I imagine it must be pretty fun. And I imagine it is possible to steer the actual car without swerving all over the road. In Classic British Motor Racing, this is impossible. The controls are way too loose, so taking turns inevitably results in going off-road.



It's hard to believe this game runs on Havok, the same physics engine that Half-Life 2 uses. Here, cars appear to be weightless. Driving over a small rock can send your Mini Cooper soaring into the sky and over a street light. It will land not with a thud, but kind of a "meh," as if it had never left the ground in the first place.

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