When Wheelspin was announced, its publisher Bethesda started the hype early promising "unpredictable race tracks at exhilarating speeds of up to 650kph" and "a frantically fast-paced game which pushes the Wii to its maximum capabilities." We were hopeful that the game would live up to these bold statements. As it is, the hype train might as well have stayed in the station. Wheelspin is one of the worst games we've ever played.
On paper the game sounds like an impressive achievement. It supports multiple control schemes (Remote, Nunchuk, Classic Controller and GameCube controller), claims to run at a smooth 60 frames per second and offers eight-player split-screen multiplayer. In practice it falls apart quicker than a roll of toilet paper in a car wash.
It's Wheely Bad
We know what some of you are thinking so let us clear something up. We're not bad at racing games yet the entire ONM team tried and failed to get around a course without spinning all over the place. Some will argue this makes for a good challenge, but we beg to differ. It's so frustrating.
Imagine a small paper airplane made with a sheet of A5 paper gently gliding through the air. Now imagine a nine-foot Roman gladiator leaping into the sky and slapping his fist right through it with all his might. The plane's response would be somewhat similar to your car's in Wheelspin when you so much as clip the edge of the track or another car. It's ridiculous. The smallest touch can send you spinning out all over the place.
How about that eight-player splitscreen? That's got to be fun, right? Admittedly, we like how well it detects every type of controller that's connected: we played with three GameCube controllers, three Remotes, a Nunchuk and a Classic Controller. Then the race started and it was business as usual. Those '60 frames a second' claims were blown out of the water and it became abundantly clear that it doesn't matter how many people are playing if the game's still as fun as having a bath with defensive hedgehogs. We started with eight players and by the end of the race only three were still playing. Others had either given up in frustration or crashed near the loop-the-loop and were caught in an endless cycle that saw them respawning in front of the loop and not being able to pick up enough speed to clear it.
Wow...
I have to watch a video of this game.
It just sounds so funny to watch.
Some unlucky soul will get this for Christmas.
My sympathies...
Lets just hope my bad luck doesn't envolve getting this game then.
a few months back, some people were saying it could beat f-zero gx
Hah just looking at the score made me laugh
I sympathize for anyone receiving this as a gift
I am suprised they released this as a Wii game when it could have been released on the VC as a N64 game. What a joke.
Gimme a video and ill beleive you
After reading this I went to gametrailers and watched some videos, which just added insult to injury. I mean the F-zero series is graphically basic but it kicks ass.
Oh well, I was hoping this would be good but obviously not. Guess we'll just have to wait for F Zero Wii (if it ever happens), because I sure do hope this isn't the closest thing the Wii is going to get to F Zero.
..
Errr...
.....
...Okay...
...
.
I’m speechless...
...
and Nintendo approved this!!!
I'm pre-ordering this.
Sarcasm. ^
Looks like a PS1 Game...
Must Buy!
I said right at the start this would be atrocious. For once I was right! It was obvious from the moment you compare the screenshots with the claims - that much of a discrepancy was a clear speller of doom.
lol no plus points, so..........worse than ninjabread man?
I thought the worst Wii game ever was that German WiiWare one that you gave 6% (I've forgotten the name)?
Perhaps this could be a candidate for "second worst Wii game ever"?
I believe the 'G' term for this sort of thing is, BUN!
...Try again.
so popcorn arcade ARN'T the worst anymore?
Nah, they're just as bad as eachother. Except this is worse.
One to avoid then. It does look awful looking at the screenshots.
Ugh, when will there be a quality check which stops these games from getting into the market?
Its shovelware after shovelware..
Nintendo aren't going to stop letting crappy games hit shelves if they get money for it.
We gave karate Phants 9% I believe. That's the worst WiiWare game. This is the worst Wii game. As in the worst game that's available in the shops...
if i find this for a fiver in a bargain bin some day i'll buy it...just to say "i own the worst game on wii" XD
This was destined to be bad.
DESTINED.
Bethesda should have just made an RPG...
actually it was 6% but karate phants (lol) is a wiiware game
I bet this would sell well on PS3 or 360 if it had the trophies/achievements.
But...but...I was lokoing forward to this game...
It was looking good..
It can't be that bad...it can't...*Breaks down crying*
A game to add to my list!
This game has had one other review, and that score was 94% from Gaming Verdict. Now I'm not necessary saying it's ONM, but SOMEONE is lying..!
Yeah, thats true..but it wont help them in the long term.
Wow this is a it of a suprise. I'd actually seen some half decent hands-on previews of this game...
Oh well, at least I'm not adding to the list of 'Games I'll get round to buying for the Wii one day'!
Featured comment features a strange, made-up word. Hooray!
I would have been more annoyed about this if I didn't have Oblivion and Fallout 3 for PS3. This is an insult from Bethesda, but I can't really say I blame them. Real games don't sell on the Wii, so why bother? I wanted to buy Muramasa today, I went into every shop in my town that sells games and nobody even stocked it. That's atrocious, but that's just where we are. I've still yet to see a copy of Klonoa or Spyborgs. When the biggest games retailer in the country doesn't even bother ordering in copies of games like this you know you're in trouble.
No matter what people tell me, I think the Wii is dead as far as actual games are concerned. EA pretty much said that it isn't a viable platform after Dead Space tanked. I bought it in the first week, and a week later it was already in the bargain sections. It's no wonder big developers don't take a gamble with a fully-funded AAA title. The only developer in the position to take a gamble is Nintendo, but they only make sequels these days.
But my mum likes it.
Oh, and who were the one who did the preview saying stuff like 'This'll be like F-Zero on Wii' a couple of issues back, making foolish readers preorder it, and now they're in for an uncontrollable (*sigh*) christmas this year? Exactly.
It depends how much time they get with the games, but I agree to an extent that preview hype can be a dangerous thing. It must be a bit of a tight-rope for games journalists. On one hand they have to show some optimism (especially at ONM) for games like this, but on the other hand they have to try and give an honest appraisal. Previews should always be taken with a pinch of salt, a lot of crappy games get really glowing previews before the verdicts come in.
im really confused, if a big company is making a game and the game is really that bad as you say it is, then surely theyd know? or do they actaully think this game is acceptble?
I guess you don't like it then?
i thought it would be that karate phants thing ONM mentioned on the round up reviews section in the mag, it only scored 6%. why do developers release these games when they know damn right it will be rubbish
What did you actually give Ninjabread man?
Hahaha this game failed.
I'm genuinely shocked Bethesda said "yeah, we'll publish this."
Such a huge catalogue of amazing games and then they wander over to publish this.
Not every game can be a winner I suppose.
ONM needs to buy every copy of this game and have a huge bonfire to stop people receiving this as a christmas present and having to say thank you through gritted teeth while really thinking "I want to hit you" and then suffering the embarrasment of walking into gamestation and saying "yes i do own this game, now please stop laughing and tell me if i can get any money for it" at which point the staff will laugh even harder and tell the person to never darken their door again!
I played this game at the Eurogamer expo in Leeds on the 27th October, and once I got my hands on it and was blasting down the first straight, I was thinking, hmm..not bad..
..Then I reached the corner
Tilt the remote just slightly to the left or right and you'll be fine, unfortunately that isn't enough to get you round 90% of the corners, and tilt it any further and the car is no longer in your control.
After 10 minutes of playing you get the hang of it, though I seriously doubt people would give it that much of their time.
The frame rate is excellent, though everything else about the game is poor at best.
I'm buying this for all my mates!
Agreed. I went into game once and I managed to pick up a copy of Spyborgs (there was about 3 and they were going for Ł30 and it was brand new). I certainly didn't regret buying it as it is a very enjoyable game especially with a mate.
do any of these games companies do an internal quality controll check on there games.
i would have sent this back into development for another couple of years to get this up to scratch.
i can understand smaller companies want to get there games out as soon as possible. but compare it to 2d boy, a 2 man team who made world of goo on the wiiware. you'd think that they'd get it right first time round.
Oh heavens make we weep....why must junk be made?
that would still be a waste of money, Ł00.99 sounds right.
http://wheelspin.info/ just thought i would add this to humor everyone
i cant believe the people who made Fallout made this!
When games get reviews as terrible as this I want to play it
Just to see how bad it is!
They didn't though, they only published it. Another developer, Awesome Play, actually made it and Bethesda just helped them get it in the shops.
Well, they had the chance to create a rival to F-Zero... but they completely missed the target.
This is a catastrophe. If this game really is as bad as it seems and many people end up buying it, the reputation Wii currently has as a feasably competitive 7th gen console will be destroyed. Despite amazing sales (thanks to it being a so-called "family console"
),it's currently losing in terms of likability in the eyes of gamers to the likes of PS3 and, to a lesser extent, XBox 360, mostly because they have so many more capabilities than Wii, and games such as the annoyingly popular Call of Duty which are seemingly indefinately better on those consoles than on Wii. Eventually, Wii sales are going to plummet as a result. I hope it doesn't live to go down that route.
The amusing thing is, a magazine at my school(FLIPSIDE) gave this game four stars(out of 5). Wonder which control system they were using.
I'm amazed they couldn't follow the F-Zero formula...
So if you could say no things good about it, why an 11% instead of a zero?
Could you show a video of you playing it just so we can see what its like because i saw one of the developer playing it and he did quite good so was he using a cheated version or something or is it just because hes the developer.
Never wanted to buy this anyway.
Why should Nintendo be blamed for this game though? Its not like they made it or published it.
I literally LOL'd at your verdict. How do you come up with this stuff?!
But yeah, one to avoid.
Double post. Whoops
@ChrisONM: Pretty sure Bethesda helped with development.
Jeez, just my opinion. But they still DID make it a bit good... I spose.
EDIT: A bit like the FaceBreaker preview, because that only got 42% or something?
Ah, I forgot you were there.
Nope, it was completely developed by Awesome Play, Archer Maclean's studio. Bethesda publish it and nothing else.
wait.... a game worse then carnival games.. is that even possible????
OMG WORSE THAN IRON MAN!!!
Well anyways weren't you saying that it seemed like a great idea in concept, that it may have been the next "F Zero for Wii"? Now that you've given the verdict I now have to feel sympathetic to:
1) Those who tried to defend the game from the typical flamers on the internet who immediately bashed it only to find the flamers were right after all?
2) Those who genuinely had hopes of buying the game (or worse yet those who HAVE already bought it).
Is this really that bad? Looks enjoyable.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxjMOksWAew
Those graphics are dismal, you could, in fact will, get better on an iPhone.
i thought hotel for dogs was the worst wii game... as you gave it 6%???
11%
I agree with mario555 it does look cool
also why do all of yous hate it just because the(BIASED)ONM said it was crap how many of yous have even played it
It actually looks enjoyable. Maybe it is a descent game?
I never got my hopes up. It's just something I've learnt over my long life as a Nintendo gamer. But it's not the worst; what about Karatephants that got 6%?
I have.. It isn't as good as it looks..
On monday i want to see a video of ONM playing this or else i dont believe them, ive saw people playing demos fine.
Never had any interest in this game, and I find its panning to be rather hilarious. I expected it to be poor, but not 11% bad.
My friend loves wheelspin. he is no longer my friend!
Why not?
Ha! I'm gonna get that for my cousin for christmas! lol...
watch this!
wow. just wow.
it's a perversion of all things good and normal.
by the way its called speedzone in u.s.
Well it was from a developer called Awesome Play.
I remember in the preview onm were really hypeing this one!
Really? that good?
I think it deserves 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%
When this game was reviewed in the magazine, the header was "A page dedicated to giving this game a right kicking." It should have been a Falcon Kicking
. Sure the Falcon Kick is no Falcon Punch but that move is a good one in its own right.