Just a soapbox derby.
Little Critter and the Great Race is a point-and-click children's game made by Infogrames in 2001. It stars Mercer Mayer's Little Critter and his family and friends. Unlike prior Little Critter games by the company, this one is a point-and-click Adventure Game. It was made and released at the same time as another game from the company, The Mummy Mystery starring Little Monster, Private Eye.The story involves Little Critter signing up to partake in a soapbox derby race, looking for the materials he needs to build a car for the race, and collecting enough newspapers to recycle so he can obtain a free riding helmet.
Tropes in Little Critter and the Great Race:
- Animation Bump: The character animation in this game is much smoother than its' predecessor. In addition to the cutscenes, animated sprites of Little Critter, his family and friends, and the other characters are utilized in many screens.
- The Big Race: The plot involves Critterville's first annual soapbox derby race.
- The Cameo: If you click on the TVs in the junkyard, Little Monster, Detective Kerploppus and Errg appear on them.
- Extremely Short Time Span: The game takes place all in one day.
- Friendly Ghost: Little Critter can get a snowboard needed for his racer from one in a haunted house, in exchange for offering the ghost lemonade and playing a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with him using spiders.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Little Critter must find the right objects needed to build his racer.
- Haunted House: Critterville has one, haunted by a Friendly Ghost.
- It May Help You on Your Quest: Many objects found earlier in the game end up useful later on in the game.
- Shout-Out: On the screen for checking into the race, if you click the barricade, four mice spoofing The Village People will appear and do a "YMCA"-esque dance (this is lifted from an earlier game, Just Me and My Mom).
- Story Branching: Of a sort; whichever of the three racer options you pick has items you must find unique to it, effectively increasing the replay value.
- Vocal Dissonance: Many of the other kids are voiced by adults who don't even bother to sound like children, and so they have deep adult voices.
- Vocal Evolution: Harrison Fraley, the boy that voiced Little Critter in prior games, reprises the role here, and his voice sounds noticeably lower due to age/puberty.
- Wacky Racing: The race near the end involves a bit of this, largely with some of the amusing types of obstacles you must avoid and with Malcolm's attempts at playing dirty once you catch up to him.
