Re-Volt, released in 1999 by the now-defunct Acclaim Entertainment on the PC, Nintendo 64, PlayStation and Dreamcast, is a unique approach to the racing genre. It pits radio-controlled cars against each other in a series of realistic and not-so-realistic tracks while using Mario Kart-style pickups. The gameplay is unique due to the physics engine that successfully emulated RC car movement. It has a related game titled RC Revenge which is its Spiritual Successor.
The game itself wasn't a big hit on the market (to the point of being classified as abandonware until its digital Updated Re-release), but it has given way to a cult following that exists to this very day. Eleven years from when it was first released, new cars, new tracks and even an online multiplayer client have been developed, and the Re-Volt community brought new life to Re-Volt with the fanmade 1.2 patch. Big Bit Interactive then bought the rights of Re-Volt, and made an iOS port of it, but then, later, a Korean company they call themselves "WeGo Interactive" bought the Re-Volt rights from Big Bit, and they developed an Android version. Little did the Re-Volt community know WeGo was planning on a Re-Volt "sequel", also for Android... however, it is literally the same game, but with Freemium content and annoying English voices with Korean accents playing while you race. The Re-Volt community now treats WeGo as a threat to them, as WeGo has already made a lot of stupid mistakes like stealing the community's fanmade 1.2 patch, and it sending it GOG.com. Luckily, GOG listened to the RV community, and took down Re-Volt. In 2017, WeGo silently went defunct along with all their games.
As of currently, Re-Volt is being further updated with "RVGL"
, an open source, cross-platform re-written codebase meant to supersede v1.2, allowing for modern systems to have easy compatibility with the game.
Many details and resources can be accessed on the Re-Volt.io community portal.
Tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: RC cars in The Wild West? Who could have imagined...
- Bedsheet Ghost: The secret Mystery car, which is just a sheet with some question marks written on it. Flipping it over reveals that there isn't actually a car underneath the sheet.
- Cartoon Bomb: A variation — when the bomb powerup is collected, the entire car turns black, becoming the body of the bomb. The aerial becomes the fuse. The bomb can be passed off to another driver by bumping into them.
- Chain Lightning: The lightning powerup will zap nearby opponents and short them out for a few seconds.
- Character Tiers: Rookie, Amateur, Advanced, Semi-Pro and Pro.
- Cool Car: Many, many cool cars.
- Creator Cameo: Humma's default skin has Re-Volt publisher Acclaim decals on it.
- Evil Counterpart: There are three unused cars that are the Phat Slug, Candy Pebbles and Toyeca, except with an Evil Costume Switch and a higher top speed. They are appropriately named "Evil Phat", "Evil Candy", and "Evil Toyeca", respectively.
- Excuse Plot: See the Living Toys example below.
- Fantastic Fireworks: Fireworks are this game's equivalents of homing missiles.
- Flying Saucer: The Probe UFO "car". It can only be unlocked by entering a cheat code, and can hover through the air.
- Foreshadowing: User-created levels have the bedroom's walls pasted posters of the unlockable cars.
- Game Mod: In no small part due to the game's fans.
- The Re-Volt community is still creating custom vehicles and levels to this day. A repository of these add-ons can be found at Re-Volt Zone.
- The fan-made Re-Volt 1.2 Patch, which allows the game to run on modern computers and adds widescreen support, among other optimizations.
- As v1.2 has since long been abandoned, the people behind it have since created the RVGL "patch" to further allow Re-Volt to natively run on modern systems, as well as completely replace the game's original codebase.
- The Re-Volt community is still creating custom vehicles and levels to this day. A repository of these add-ons can be found at Re-Volt Zone.
- Humble Pie: If you fail to qualify for the podium in Championship mode, or lose all of your tries, the 3 winning cars get to watch as your car has a bomb strapped to it, dumped underneath them, and is blown up. Your car survives, but it's still pretty humiliating.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: From easiest to hardest: Junior RC, Console, Arcade and Simulation. This modifies the collision model, from fully realistic for both walls and cars (Simulation), simplified for cars and realistic for walls (Arcade), fully simplified (Console), and fully simplified with a reduced top speed for all cars (Junior RC)
- Glass Cannon: The RV Loco car, introduced in the Dreamcast port of the game. It can travel much faster than any other car in the game, but it's poor steering and extreme top-heaviness means it will flip over if you even look at it wrong.
- Joke Character:
- The Phat Slug vehicle, which has the lowest speed and acceleration of any car in the game.
- Cheats allow the player to play as the shopping carts seen in the Supermarket levels. It's even slower than Phat Slug, and it will tip over when taking nearly any turns.
- Jungle Japes: A downplayed example. The Botanical Garden level features tropical greenery almost exclusively.
- Laser Hallway: A miniaturised, more plausible version of this appears in the Museum track, triggering an alarm in the background as cars pass through it.
- Level Editor:
- A built-in level editor allows you to create tracks using predesigned pieces on a grid. Most versions of the game give these levels a kid's bedroom aesthetic.note
- A hidden game mode in the PC version called "makeitgood" allows users to modify the placement of objects and other track elements. Clever modders have imported their own models into this game mode to create original tracks from scratch.
- Level in Reverse: Not only are there reverse versions of the standard tracks (With tracks designed to go through different parts of the area when played in reverse), but there are also mirrored versions, flipped left-to-right. As if that wasn't enough, there are also reverse versions of these mirrored versions.
- Lightning Bruiser: Bertha Ballistics and the console-exclusive BossVolt are the heaviest cars in the game, easily tanking most weapons (at worst fearing a spin-out), but they boast surprisingly good top speed and acceleration, and while their handling is their weaker point, it's still fairly decent.
- Living Toys: The guy who made these RCs put a bit too much of their magic spark in them. They race for no reason. Have fun.
- Mighty Glacier:
- Pest Control is quite heavy and has exceptional top speed for its Semi-Pro rating, but its acceleration is very poor.
- Rotor is the second-heaviest car in the game (tied with Bertha Ballistics), and has a very high speed as well as the unique ability to not being stopped by being flipped over. On the other hand, its acceleration is even worse than Pest Control's, its cornering abilities are weak (being incapable of powersliding) and greatly struggles on irregular terrain.
- Moveset Clone: The PlayStation and Dreamcast ports add twelve new vehicles to the lineup, all being repaints of the original set with small changes to their speed and handling properties. The Dreamcast version adds two more - BigVolt and BossVolt, and they use new models.
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Nintendo Hard: Even on the Console setting, the second lowest handling setting, getting first place in a race isn't easy. - Nitro Boost: The battery pickup, which speeds up your car and increases their grip for about ten seconds. It also prevents the car from being shorted out by the Lightning pikcup.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: Any bombs that blow up your RC car won't actually damage it, just send it flying, tumbling, and probably landing upside down, but no worse for wear. Of course, this is a racing game, so it will still slow you down significantly.
- Not Quite Flight: The Probe UFO (available through cheats only) can hover for a while after leaping off a ramp. It's fully steerable and has an infinite speed limit while airborne.
- Oil Slick: One of the powerups.
- Poison Mushroom: Pickups come with the added risk of getting the bomb, which sets your car on a timer and you have to pass the bomb to other cars before you explode.
- Product Placement: Basketballs have "NBA Jam" written on them. Acclaim was in charge of the franchise at the time.
- Shout-Out: The "Toys in the Hood" track.
- Smart Bomb: The Star powerup, which can either be obtained by finding it hidden somewhere in a given track, or on rare occasions, through a regular powerup. It disables every other car for a few seconds.
- Stealth Pun: One of the cars is a car whose body resembles a black-and-white bear with black patches around the eyes. In other words, a panda car.
- Toy Time: The Toy World tracks.
- Updated Re-release: The fanmade 1.2 version adds certified compatibility with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10, as well as major graphical improvement and more customization than before.
- The Virus: Any car affected by the Bomb powerup can transfer the effect to any opponent by touching them.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: While the prior tracks were somewhat tough but manageable, the museum stage really ups the difficulty with winding and tight turns and vicious blind spots that can put you back severely.
- Water Guns and Balloons: A three-pack water balloons is one of the powerups — it can be shot at opponents, which knocks them off course and spins them out.
- The Wild West: A few of the game's levels are set in a western American ghost town, complete with tumbleweeds and wanted posters.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: The Phat Slug.
