I have another racing game for you: we call it Re-Volt! It was released for Windows PCs, the Nintendo 64, and the PlayStation on August 18, 1999 in North America and September 3, 1999 in Europe. The Dreamcast version was released on December 17, 1999 in North America and August 2, 2000 in Europe and was developed by the now-defunct Acclaim Studios London and published by the now-defunct Acclaim Entertainment. Unlike TrickStyle, which we previously reviewed, the rights to the title was owned by the now-closed South Korean company WeGo Interactive before it went to Superday, which was made up of ex-WeGo staff. Through Korean publisher H2 Interactive, the PC version was relisted on GOG.com in April 2022, which reverted the game back to the original 1.0 version of the game. The game does not have a Japanese release.

The premise of the game involves racing radio-controlled cars around environments like museums, steamships, construction sites, and supermarkets. During a race, the cars can collect random weapons to use to displace competitors. Cars and tracks were both unlocked through success in the game’s tournament modes.

MobyGames describes the game’s premise:

For years, the Toy-Volt company has been producing toys and games for children all over the world. Within months of introducing their first products, Toy-Volt shot to the top! No one could put their finger on exactly what it was that made the toys so popular. Sure, they employed the best designers and marketers in the world, but there was something else about Toy-Volt toys, something almost…. magic. Now, their newest R/C cars really start to live!

Re-Volt is a racing game where you take control over one of more than 28 R/C cars and drive on one of the 13 tracks. The tracks are varied, and include a toy shop, a supermarket, a luxury liner and more. It is possible to play a “reversed” (backwards) or “mirror” (reversed left and right) variety of each track. There are also 4 levels of realism to choose from.

There are a couple of single- and multiplayer game modes to choose from. There’s a Single Race, where you complete a single track while competing with several computer-controlled opponents; a Championship, where you try to complete a series of races in hopes of finishing on the top; and Multiplayer, where you play with live opponents. There’s also a Time Trial, where you’re alone on the track, and simply try to get as best a time as possible; a Practice mode, where you’re free to drive around a track to learn its structure and shortcuts; and the Stunt Arena, where you drive around a special arena and try to collect stars situated in hard-to-reach places.

In Single Race, Championship and Multiplayer there are power-ups scattered throughout the track; picking them up gives you a one-use random power, such as missiles to launch at pesky opponents, a star to temporarily freeze competitors in place or a lightning bolt, which makes your car shock opponents nearby to make them stop.

Game Modes

• Single Race — Allows the player to race against computer opponents for first place. Completing races associated with a cup unlocks one new car. This game mode is available in multiplayer mode for up to four players to race against each other.
• Championship — Racing in a cup which consists of four races for points. The higher the rank, the more points are earned. However, the player is required to finish in 3rd or better to advance to the next race; failing to do so costs a try, and after three tries have depleted, the championship ends. Obtaining first in a cup unlocks additional levels and cars.
• Time Trial — This game mode lets the player compete for the fastest lap time in any race that is unlocked. Beating the challenge time of tracks associated with a cup unlocks reverse, mirror, and reverse mirror variations of those tracks.
• Practice — Allows the player to explore tracks with no time limit or other racers. In addition, each track features a star to collect. Collecting each star from a track associated with a cup unlocks two new cars.
• Stunt Arena — A small arena features 20 stars to collect. The arena features a loop, ramps as well as a half pipe with stars that can only be obtained with higher-performing cars. Collecting all 20 stars unlocks a game mode.
• Battle Tag — A multiplayer-only mode that features a star hidden in a battle level. Collecting the star counts down a timer for a player. The first player to have their timer reach 0 is the winner. The game continues until the last person fails to collect the star.
• Clockwork Carnage — Instead of 8 RC cars racing to the finish, it's a 30-wind-up car race to the finish in any of the race levels.

The PC and Dreamcast versions also include a “Track Editor” (a la Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series) and a “Car Editor”. The track editor allows users to create their own tracks with an editor centered around blocks that can be placed in a custom-sized grid. Several pieces have different skins to use, variations of slopes and heights to choose from, and can be used in Single Race, Multi-Player, Time Trial, and Practice game modes. Unlike the Nintendo 64 version, tracks can be traded by VMU and take up to 7 blocks per level.

Items

If items are left on in the Options menu, racers can make use of ten different items that can turn the race around in or against the favor of the racers. They are shockwaves, fireworks, firework packs, EMPs, bombs, oil slicks, water balloons, ball bearings, and clone pick-ups.

After Acclaim Entertainment went bankrupt in 2004, fans continued to support and extend the game by producing fan-made vehicles and courses, and by operating multiplayer servers. Fans have created an open-source, cross-platform chat/lobby client called “RV House” that allows players to connect and play online. This platform is directly interconnected to the website “Revolt Race” (the site is now gone), in which, among other features, a monthly set of tracks is chosen to serve as the base for time trialing. Additionally, more recently the community has set up a Discord channel that serves as the major hub to talk about the game, host, advertise and join races, share content/mods, or even help develop new tools and updates for the game — which the latest iteration consists of RVGL, a cross-platform rewrite/port of Re-Volt’s source code that runs natively on both Windows and Linux.

While new players may experience a significant learning curve, the community remains active with records of fastest laps and new courses and cars still being added. The fanbase has gone on to maintain the PC version with alpha and beta updates. The game was also ported by the fan community to multiple platforms such as Linux, macOS, Android, ODROID, and OpenPandora based on the available source code. The game is also available on Steam, despite WeGo Interactive’s official website is already gone.

Reception

Though I never owned the game physically, the PC and Dreamcast versions received favorable reviews, and the Nintendo 64 version and Re-Volt Classic received mixed reviews, while the PlayStation version received unfavorable reviews, according to the review aggregation websites GameRankings (now defunct) and Metacritic. It’s worth mentioning that the game’s official website, formerly located at http://www.acclaim.com/games/re-volt/index.html (North America, although some pages might be missing or not found), is no longer available and can only be accessed through the Wayback Machine.

That wraps up another Dreamcast game. Since Gfycat will be shutting down at the end of August, it’s time to save your GIFs from Gfycat if you have uploaded them to the site and migrated them to GIPHY.