Racing Games Trivia Quiz

Answer: Diddy Kong Racing

Most of Diddy Kong Racing's characters, beside Diddy himself, were new and unique to the game, but Conker and Banjo (in N64 version) went to become protagonists in popular platformers "Conker's Bad Fur Day" and "Banjo-Kazooie" respectively. Donkey Kong did not feature, despite being the main man (or should that be 'main monkey'?) of the "Donkey Kong" franchise where Diddy originated.

The game's mainstay was its adventure mode, and there were three types of vehicles to use: a plane, a car and a hovercraft. The hovercraft has poor traction, but was necessary to traverse water levels, and the plane was needed in flight levels. Powerups such as oil slicks, rockets and invincibility could be found in coloured balloons, and the levels had 8 silver coins to find if players wanted an extra challenge. However, its replay value was criticised by reviewers.

Answer: Need For Speed

"Need For Speed" was originally released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer platform, and featured police pursuits, race replay functions, detailed race stats and vehicle statistics as well. It was the first game of its series and has since spawned many, many other members of its series, which almost all have the 'Need For Speed' tag preceding a punchy phrase or word such as in "Need For Speed: Carbon" or "Need For Speed: Undercover".

Answer: Big Bird

Big Bird was a big, fluffy yellow 'bird' (or a man in a costume) who came from the popular children's TV show "Sesame Street", which debuted in 1969 and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009. However, he did not feature in "Muppet RaceMania", which probably isn't surprising as he isn't a Muppet to begin with, although they are both similar types of creature.

"Muppet RaceMania" featured an ensemble crew of said Muppets, and even used clips from real Muppet footage at the beginning of each levels which were the basis for each of their levels. For example, a swamp level was based on the clip where Kermit was singing "Rainbow Connection" with a banjo. Each Muppet had their own special move, which typically affected every other character negatively for a few seconds, and could also use powerups like homing chickens and penguin bombs. There were many secret levels and a battle mode which made this game quite expansive and giving it plenty of replay value.

Answer: Burnout

"Burnout", like "Need For Speed", spawned its own series of games due to its success. Like "Need For Speed", each game has the "Burnout" title attached. "Burnout" is well-known for its high-paced races, and because of this many collisions and crashes are likely, even expected, within levels.

The main mode was Championship, where there were three or four races against three other cars, and doing well would eventually (after doing Face-Off unlocked challenges) unlock new and faster cars which were required to win later levels.

Whilst it was praised for its accessibility and controls, it was criticised for its difficulty and music.

Answer: Colin McRae Rally

Real drivers featured in "Colin McRae Rally" included Didier Auriol, Juha Kankkunen and Piero Liatti (not that I could tell you anything much about them...) and this practice was discontinued in most future editions, perhaps because of royalties. The game featured locations in New Zealand, Corsica and the UK amongst others, and players could adjust the tyres, suspension, steering and gear ratio for maximum effectiveness.

After his death in 2007, Codemasters, the game's publishers, renamed the series to "DiRT", possibly based on "Colin McRae: Dirt", released in 2006. In 1995, Colin McRae became the youngest person to win the World Rally Championship title and was the first Brit to do so; holding this record was probably what got a game named after him.

Answer: Crash Team Racing

"Crash Team Racing" involved kart racing through many colourful levels, and crates could be broken for powerups, such as missiles and speed boosts. There were five modes of play, a story mode Adventure, a personal race to beat the record times in Time Trial, an Arcade mode which was a race through a single track or cup, A Battle mode which uses crate weapons in special arenas, and Versus which was the same as Arcade but with multiple human players involved, good for challenging friends!

The first three titles of the "Crash Bandicoot" series were semi-3d platforming games, and I say 'semi' because many of them had heavy side-scrolling or forward-motion elements, making them typically linear in design, although fun nonetheless.

Answer: Micro Machines

The races in "Micro Machines" always featured 4 cars, and the levels themselves had their own hazards to avoid, for example on the billiards board level the cue could hit balls into your car and throw it off balance. The normal mode had 21 levels in a linear fashion, and one would start with three lives. One could get an extra life if they won three levels and defeated the bonus level, however, winning was not always easy as typically one of the opponents would be quite fast, but practice usually made perfect in the end.

Answer: Grand Theft Auto

This controversial title has spawned much outrage across its many series, mainly because many of its games encourage illegal activity like bank robberies and assassinations. Some people have blamed these influences for the deaths of parents, police and friends by young people, and that they would not have done so without the influence of the game.

Despite this controversy, or indeed, perhaps because of it, the game series has been very successful, selling over 100 million titles as of 2011 and, after the release of "Grand Theft Auto:III", most series have garnered extremely positive reviews.

Answer: Mario Kart 64

The game moved to 3d graphics and allowed multiplayer gaming, which was a popular feature. All 8 playable characters featured in Mario past, such as primate Donkey Kong, wicked Wario, and loveable dino Yoshi. There were 16 playable levels, and four tournaments in Grand Prix mode where people would get points depending on their placing in each level, and the overall top scorer would win a trophy. Like "Diddy Kong Racing", there were also Time Trial, Versus and Battle modes.

The game was a best-seller praised for its multiplayer mode but was criticised for being too easy and there not being enough to do as a single player.

Answer: Gran Turismo

Although the first game was released in 1997 as "Gran Turismo", the game was conceived in 1992 by Kazunori Yamauchi and others and the game took 5 years to finish. Typically, the player had two modes of plays, one against other cars, and the other a simulation mode where the player could undergo skills tests and such to try a different type of challenge.

"Gran Turismo" means "Grand Touring" in Italian, and the series has been commercially successful, appealing to those who want realism as well as well as those just want to kick back and relax to a solid racing game. Over 60 million units had been sold across the franchise's lifetime in November 2011, and the first five primary game titles were all popular with reviewers as well.