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Five Racing Game Tracks That Defy Regulations

Regulations can be a blessing and a curse, they generally exist to keep you safe within the confines of their jurisdiction but at the same time they limit potential. Apparently racing track designers in the fictional future know this as well as the folk at Casino-Wise.com.

Let’s take a look at a handful of tracks from a variety of games that shirk regulations in the name of entertainment and excitement!

Qoron IV

Wipeout 64 - Nintendo 64 (1998)

The underrated pseudo-sequel to Wipeout 2097 takes place a year afterwards in 2098 and features mirrored versions of the earlier titles tracks transplanted to new environments. In this case Qoron IV is a mirrored and trimmed version of the Canadian track Altima VII from the original Wipeout.

The scenery makes all the difference however with the sleek modern look of future Canada making way for a dirty, grungy extraterrestrial route through a cave network. The landscape of Qoron IV features a lot of heavy duty machinery and odd facial features surrounding many cave entrances suggesting odd things are afoot here.

Aquilaris - Sunken City

Star Wars Episode 1: Racer - Nintendo 64/Dreamcast (1999)

Aquilaris is an established aquatic resort world in the Star Wars universe that is a major destination for the sport of podracing and has multiple tracks on its surface. Because of that it’s unsurprisingly a prominent location in STAR WARS Episode I Racer. The Sunken City course is one of three courses from the planet contained in the game and its most prominent features are the underwater tunnels that connect various islands.

Podracing itself is extremely dangerous with many pilots losing their lives, so having tracks that purposely delve into the watery depths with only a fancy science-fiction transparent metal stopping major disaster from occurring seems a fool's errand.

Greek Isles

Hydro Thunder - PlayStation/Nintendo 64/Dreamcast (1999)

Back to somewhere familiar now as we detour into the arcade classic Hydro Thunder and throw some powerboats around some watery locales. The track that makes me question whether regulations were even considered during construction is the Greek Isles course.

To start with, the amount of construction required to create this monster is incredibly impressive but I’m not sure they understand how boats work as a substantial amount of the track is composed of dry slopes and a waterless aqueduct. Not only would that cause untold damage to the boats as they scrape their way down them but the ancient looking brickwork would be devastated!

Silence

F-Zero X - Nintendo 64 (1998)

Back to the future as we question letting vehicles reach over 1000km/h in the first fully 3D F-Zero title. Silence is iconic as a location, described in the original F-Zero manual as “A truly soundless planet, where not even a single noise is heard.”

This three dimensional version of the track takes the hairpins and sharp angles of the original and instead gets the racers to perform death-defying trips across vertical 90 degree turns and even venturing upside-down. The pilots of these craft need to have huge faith that the magnetic nature of their vehicles doesn’t let them down at a critical moment.

Atlantis

Cruis’n Exotica - Nintendo 64 (2000)

We return to the watery depths as we take a detour into Midway’s final entry in the arcade Cruis’n franchise, Cruis’n Exotica. As the name suggests, the game sees you traversing many unusual locales unlike the prior games, Cruis’n USA and Cruis’n World.

Even so you perhaps wouldn’t expect to be driving through Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean with an ordinary vehicle, avoiding sharks and seemingly unimpeded by the lack of air to breath or the effects of friction and gravity on your car.

That was a look at some of the more unusual tracks that don’t play by the rules, are there any we missed that stand out. Let us know in the comments below!