I spent an enormously disproportionate quantity of my childhood taking part in one recreation: Buggy Boy. I’ve discovered, in preparation for this text, that this arcade traditional had a unique title within the U.S. “Velocity Buggy.” Pah-tooie. Ew. No. It’s Buggy Boy, and it was—till 2025—the one racing recreation that acknowledged the important significance of driving a automobile on two wheels. Now that Mario Kart World has revived this core conceit, it’s time to offer Tatsumi Electronics’ all-time traditional the popularity it deserves.
Truthfully, what’s it with you Individuals and your willpower to decide on a totally garbage model of one thing the remainder of the world does otherwise? The imperial system? Fahrenheit? Placing your dates in a wholly random order? And Velocity Buggy?! No. It was Bagī Bōi (バギーボーイ) in Japan, and that simply flat-out interprets to Buggy Boy. Velocity Buggy was a 1973 crossover cartoon with Josie and the Pussycats for Hanna-Barbera. The matter is resolved. I settle for your apology.
Buggy Boy was first launched as an arcade recreation in Japan in 1985, together with in a cockpit cupboard with a three-screen show. Come 1987 it was ported throughout to the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, earlier than being realized in its good model in 1988 for the ZX Spectrum, Amiga and Atari ST. It was then {that a} 10-year-old John Walker performed that recreation till the digital tyres (sure, tyres—“tires” means to get sleepy) wore skinny.
As a result of my dad was flawed, we had an Atari ST as an alternative of an Amiga, and as such had been left with all of the crappy gaming magazines and the determined, unconvincing cry of “Nevertheless it’s utilized by skilled music producers!” However a minimum of I additionally had Buggy Boy, the primary recreation to know that every one vehicular racing is improved when tipped on one aspect.
Buggy Boy was, as you may suspect from the yr it was launched, a comparatively easy racing recreation—relative to right now. On the time, it was positively intricate, primarily due to the muddle on the roads. Somewhat than your generic racetrack of video games like Pole Place, empty save for the presence of different automobiles, on the imply non-streets of BB you had been confronted with all method of obstacles, from logs and rocks to boundaries and piles of bricks. On the similar time, the 5 completely different tracks had been coated in flags to drive into and banners to drive underneath, to attain further factors, and—most significantly—means by which you may trigger your automobile to each soar and flip up on its aspect onto two wheels.
It’s so necessary to keep in mind that it is a full seven years earlier than Tremendous Mario Kart would seem on SNES, and whereas Buggy Boy was a single-player recreation with a single automobile on the tracks, I discover it unimaginable to not hint a lineage. The madcap nature of Mario’s programs, whereas actually born of F-Zero, nonetheless really feel considerably impressed by Buggy Boy to me. And but I by no means hear a soul point out this recreation, ever.
Simply the flexibility to leap, I feel, marks out BB as particular. Vehicles—and stick with me right here—can’t soar. They are often launched, actually, however their means to hop up into the air via driving over a log has but to be recorded in nature. It’s a gloriously foolish function that too many racing video games would have eschewed, in favor of “realism.” However nothing was higher than while you drove over a slanty small rock within the highway and tipped up on two wheels.
The sport knew it. You scored far more factors while you drove like this, and it didn’t sluggish you down. The impact lasted till you hit some other impediment or function, and as your buggy plopped down onto 4 wheels as soon as extra, your coronary heart sank with it, a brand new excessive rating doubtless missed.
Taking part in Mario Kart World—a recreation I’m actually struggling to like (regardless of taking part in as a Cheep Cheep)—each time I discover myself grinding a railing, fence or barrier, seeing my kart tip up diagonally, I simply really feel a nostalgic hit of enjoyment. This! That is what’s been lacking from racing video games for almost 40 years! It makes me completely satisfied, the way in which listening to a long-forgotten track you liked in your teenage years can wrap you within the feelings of reminiscence.
There was a lot extra to it, too! You needed to gather the coloured flags within the order proven on display screen, for bonuses, and the time gates had been important to make sure you may maintain taking part in (full with the on-screen symbols that I all the time parsed as Monopoly playing cards). Then there was the vary of monitor choices: an offroad monitor you’d loop round 5 occasions, in addition to 4 different distinctive programs every made up of 5 distinct phases. It had that Mario Kart-like map to maintain you centered, and have I discussed how a lot I like going up on two wheels?
Buggy Boy has by no means obtained the love and recognition it deserves. The place are the trendy remakes? The arcade traditional celebrations? The misguided try to reboot the franchise as a first-person shooter? Let this be the sport’s clarion name.
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