Oh my god, I LOVE crappy games. I don’t know what it is – I think I have a problem. I was told a while ago that my brain responds to negative emotions in the same way it does positive ones, so I can only assume that there’s some twisted psychology gubbins going on for me to actually kind of bizarrely enjoy playing some utter slash from the gaming world.
And if there’s one company from the 90s that’s synonymous with utter slash, it’s got to be LJN.
LJN published some absolute raging dump trucks of games for the NES, SNES, and Game Boy – buying licenses to distribute some of the crappest games ever made. LJN was primarily a toy producer, so games weren’t the most important thing to them – and it shows. However, that didn’t stop the company from lucrative enough to be bought twice in its lifetime. The crappy video games didn’t stop being churned out until then owners Acclaim Entertainment shut the company down in 1995. Thankfully.
But Spirit of Speed is interesting because it was released in the year 2000 for the Dreamcast. And yet it still bears the LJN logo – despite the company officially having been dead for five years. In fact, there were no games released under the LJN label by Acclaim at all between 1995 and 2000. So what the heck is going on here?
The game was also released for PC, with the publisher label of Microprose. It was actually developed by Broadsword Interactive, who mostly did novelty titles and had nothing especially amazing in their repertoire – but one would have thought that by 2000, LJN had made a name for themselves as only publishing godawful games. Why did Acclaim use this logo for the Dreamcast version?
I would love to know. Because I enjoy absolutely useless information that benefits absolutely noone ever.
Spirit of Speed 1937 is by all accounts, a dreadful racing game. It was only released on PC inititally, in Europe only – and then for some reason on Dreamcast less than a year later in both Europe and North America. It features some of the original cars used in the very first motorsports, promising the thrills of 1930s racing. And to be fair, race cars at that time were able to meet speeds of more than 260 mph so I would hope this game reflects that.
However, it does not. It’s a really rubbish game with little to no redeeming features, aside from maybe the interesting designs of the cars. If you’re into that kind of thing. It received poor reviews at the time, due to its lengthy load times and weak graphics. The courses look boring as all bumbles too.
In any case, the reason why I want this for the Dreamcast rather than the PC, aside from the fact the PC version isn’t adorned with the Rainbow of Rubbish, is that I grew up with a Dreamcast and a steering wheel.
When I went to my brother’s house a few years back and claimed our childhood Dreamcast and all the games for it, I refused to take the (boxed) steering wheel because, as I believe I told him, “It’s massive and crap”. It is indeed massive. And it is, for that matter, indeed crap. A great big unwieldy hunk of plastic that doesn’t respond very well to controls and that I spent far too much of my time trying to play Wacky Races with as a kid.
Even though this is the official Dreamcast controller, it’s just….crap. I mean, it really is just entirely baubles. Spirit of Speed 1937 is a game known to be utter baubles. Probably one of the worst racing games on the Dreamcast. Now imagine these two sets of baubles meeting, like a slash fanfiction written by a fifteen-year-old girl trying to understand her sexuality – poetry. Poorly written, awkward poetry.
The racing game is unknown to me. It would be funny if you did a skit on your channel. Just think of the laughter produced if Octavius would wear goggles and old time clothes but the thought has already crossed your great mind. I’m a long time subscriber. I’m trying to get your book but store doesn’t have it.