This would have been so damn cool! Would this be for all platforms?
The Best Video Games Never Made
- Thread starter Duke Andrew of Dank
- Start date
While this game's two main inspirations remain Nintendo hardware exclusives, Gravity Falls: The Video Game saw releases on Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft consoles as well as Steam.
I had the idea that maybe Nintendo could partner with Phillips as a mean to try and build up its prescence in Europe. Whereas maybe they could also acquire Midway Studios (in Chicago) in order to have a reliable first-party developer of games meant to appeal to older audiences.
@Nivek might have more insight too.
Touhou - Highly Responsive to Prayers (Reboot)
Developer: Team Shanghai Alice
Publisher: Team Shanghai Alice
Platform: Windows
Release Date: 2025
Plot: it is a Reboot of the first PC-98 game, Something happened to Hakurei Shrine, Reimu Hakurei must adventure within Gensokyo and she directly confront against the enemies via danmaku battle, the player must choose two paths: Makai and Hell with different endings thus taking Different each paths, The good ending is, Reimu Hakurei defeats the final boss with her friendship of power and the final boss became friends with Reimu Hakurei. but the bad ending is, Reimu hakurei tries to defeat the final boss but she failed to defeat her.
What do you think?
Developer: Team Shanghai Alice
Publisher: Team Shanghai Alice
Platform: Windows
Release Date: 2025
Plot: it is a Reboot of the first PC-98 game, Something happened to Hakurei Shrine, Reimu Hakurei must adventure within Gensokyo and she directly confront against the enemies via danmaku battle, the player must choose two paths: Makai and Hell with different endings thus taking Different each paths, The good ending is, Reimu Hakurei defeats the final boss with her friendship of power and the final boss became friends with Reimu Hakurei. but the bad ending is, Reimu hakurei tries to defeat the final boss but she failed to defeat her.
What do you think?
I see. Though I could still see Nintendo expand its stake in Rare and buy up Midway at some point to help keep appeal among older gamers.
People forget that besides MK...Midway hold little IPS, they published a lot of arcade licenses but those were licenses, as original content was very limited.
If Nintendo want a bigger Western presence, they could start making development studios in the west since NES early days and buying small development teams too
Super Mario World 2
Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) [1]
Release Date: October 26, 1993 (Original); June 22, 2006 (Super Mario All-Stars Volume 2)
The direct sequel to 1990's Super Mario World, this game was made in part because the first game had started development on the original cartridge-based SNES, meaning that it hadn't been able to harness the full potential of the CD-based version's hardware. As a result, this game could be considered the SMB3 to the first game's SMB1: a game that essentially builds upon the first game by taking advantage of the console's further discovered technological capabilities and also embellishes the gameplay itself. One of the biggest differences is that the game now includes better animated graphics for characters and more detailed backgrounds: which especially works to the game's advantage in the darker levels.
Gameplay
This installment is generally close to the original game, but there are several key changes. The first big one is that Luigi's physics are different from Mario for the first time, with him being fast and able to jump higher, but also having poorer traction. Meanwhile, the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Cape Feather, and the Power Star are the four Power-ups from the original game to return, with the Hammer and Frog Suits returning from SMB3, and the addition of the Ice Flower (which can be used to create ice platforms over water of cooled lava) and the Mini-Mushroom (which shrinks the player and lets them reach secrets). However, the worlds and levels are quite a bit more creative in terms of blending locations centered around their central motifs, and the levels are also a bit more challenging with plenty of extra secret exits that lead to shortcuts. Some shortcuts lead to secret levels, while others lead to locations where Princess Peach (being called such for the first time) or Henk - a Captain Haddock-like outdoors man who's friends with Peach - can be found. Peach uses her magic to give the Marios clues about other secret exits or collectables that are cleverly hidden in the worlds, and Henk usually offers Mario and Luigi extra Power-ups that he found himself for the road ahead. Each world concludes with a boss fight against one of the Koopalings, albeit with the difference that rather than fighting you directly, they use large animals or machines to try and do the dirty work. Mario and Luigi must attack these things to make the Koopalings vulnerable to further counterattacks.
In addition to all these embellishments, this game would also be the first time where the Mario Brothers are voiced by Charles Martinet, albeit with the voiceacting restricted to in-game quips. Furthermore this game would be the first time that the Mario series experimented with something more in-depth and detailed than a "Bowser kidnaps Peach" storyline. This story is mainly told via sprite animations and on-screen narration in-between each world, including some scenes detailing Mario and Luigi's adventuring or Peach and Henk discussing the latter's kidnapped son, with some foreshadowing for the ending's now iconic twist included.
Plot
Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Yoshi are returning to Fungaria (first time the The Mushroom Kingdom is referred to as such) after their vacation in Dinosaur World, with Yoshi heading to a party in his honor to celebrate his role in helping the Marios. On the way however, the party is attacked by the sibling team Boom-Boom and Pom-Pom, who gloat that the Koopalings have already avenged Bowser and taken over Fungaria as revenge for his defeat. Mario tries to fight them off, but the boat the heroes are riding on is destroyed. Soon however they are rescued by an older man who takes them aboard his fishing boat and takes them to his isolated cabin via a passage in a seaside cavern.
Peach recognizes the man, but before she can say anything he introduces himself to the Marios as Henk, a long time friend of Peach's family. Henk explains that his young son was captured by the Koopalings in their initial invasion along with many other denizens of the kingdom in their absence. Henk says they will help the Marios defeat Bowser alongside Peach if they ensure his son's safety as they do so. With clear orders, Mario and Luigi set out with Henk and Peach following to stop each Koopaling once again, with Yoshi following to keep helping his friends.
Reception
Upon release, Super Mario World 2 was acclaimed as a superior successor to the original title. Critics and fans praised the game for its enhanced graphics and gameplay, sound design, and experimentation with a more involved story. The characters of King Henk and Prince Cream became very popular upon their initial appearances, and would become frequent characters in Mario spin-offs during the years thereafter.
[1] In my universe, the idea of an SNES CD-ROM is kept by Nintendo who opts with Phillips instead of Sony in order to try and help increase Nintendo's market in Europe. As its market in North America and its native Japan is well established by now.
OOC: Thanks to @SubparLario for letting me borrow the idea of using Mario's Whacky Worlds as a template.
Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) [1]
Release Date: October 26, 1993 (Original); June 22, 2006 (Super Mario All-Stars Volume 2)
The direct sequel to 1990's Super Mario World, this game was made in part because the first game had started development on the original cartridge-based SNES, meaning that it hadn't been able to harness the full potential of the CD-based version's hardware. As a result, this game could be considered the SMB3 to the first game's SMB1: a game that essentially builds upon the first game by taking advantage of the console's further discovered technological capabilities and also embellishes the gameplay itself. One of the biggest differences is that the game now includes better animated graphics for characters and more detailed backgrounds: which especially works to the game's advantage in the darker levels.
Gameplay
This installment is generally close to the original game, but there are several key changes. The first big one is that Luigi's physics are different from Mario for the first time, with him being fast and able to jump higher, but also having poorer traction. Meanwhile, the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Cape Feather, and the Power Star are the four Power-ups from the original game to return, with the Hammer and Frog Suits returning from SMB3, and the addition of the Ice Flower (which can be used to create ice platforms over water of cooled lava) and the Mini-Mushroom (which shrinks the player and lets them reach secrets). However, the worlds and levels are quite a bit more creative in terms of blending locations centered around their central motifs, and the levels are also a bit more challenging with plenty of extra secret exits that lead to shortcuts. Some shortcuts lead to secret levels, while others lead to locations where Princess Peach (being called such for the first time) or Henk - a Captain Haddock-like outdoors man who's friends with Peach - can be found. Peach uses her magic to give the Marios clues about other secret exits or collectables that are cleverly hidden in the worlds, and Henk usually offers Mario and Luigi extra Power-ups that he found himself for the road ahead. Each world concludes with a boss fight against one of the Koopalings, albeit with the difference that rather than fighting you directly, they use large animals or machines to try and do the dirty work. Mario and Luigi must attack these things to make the Koopalings vulnerable to further counterattacks.
In addition to all these embellishments, this game would also be the first time where the Mario Brothers are voiced by Charles Martinet, albeit with the voiceacting restricted to in-game quips. Furthermore this game would be the first time that the Mario series experimented with something more in-depth and detailed than a "Bowser kidnaps Peach" storyline. This story is mainly told via sprite animations and on-screen narration in-between each world, including some scenes detailing Mario and Luigi's adventuring or Peach and Henk discussing the latter's kidnapped son, with some foreshadowing for the ending's now iconic twist included.
Plot
Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Yoshi are returning to Fungaria (first time the The Mushroom Kingdom is referred to as such) after their vacation in Dinosaur World, with Yoshi heading to a party in his honor to celebrate his role in helping the Marios. On the way however, the party is attacked by the sibling team Boom-Boom and Pom-Pom, who gloat that the Koopalings have already avenged Bowser and taken over Fungaria as revenge for his defeat. Mario tries to fight them off, but the boat the heroes are riding on is destroyed. Soon however they are rescued by an older man who takes them aboard his fishing boat and takes them to his isolated cabin via a passage in a seaside cavern.
Peach recognizes the man, but before she can say anything he introduces himself to the Marios as Henk, a long time friend of Peach's family. Henk explains that his young son was captured by the Koopalings in their initial invasion along with many other denizens of the kingdom in their absence. Henk says they will help the Marios defeat Bowser alongside Peach if they ensure his son's safety as they do so. With clear orders, Mario and Luigi set out with Henk and Peach following to stop each Koopaling once again, with Yoshi following to keep helping his friends.
- World 1 - Farmer's Plains: A level combining a grassland motif with elements of industry thanks to it being a farming area. The end of the level leads the Marios into a barnhouse where they confront Roy, who tries to mow them down in a tractor.
- World 2 - Gao Karoo: Super Mario Land's feline-like Gao race return inspired by Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. Most of the initial half covers the transition from plains to desert before the brothers enter the lost civilization. Inside the civilization's ruins, the brothers find Larry Koopa using magic to bring the mummies to life, and Mario and Luigi must trick the mummies into trying up Larry with their bandages and then attack him.
- World 3 - Sunken Citadel: After defeating Larry, the Marios find more ruins along a coast line and use them to go underwater into sunken ruins. After some time in the ocean, the levels transfer to a pirate ship motif with Mario and Luigi battling pirates of all kinds. The boss of this world is a Giga-Blooper that Wendy is using (alongside the pirates) to try and plunder the sunken citadel of its treasures.
- World 4 - Mutant Bayou: Upon defeating Wendy, the Marios commandeer one of the pirate ships and sail into a swamp area with a castle. Thanks to several swamp and underwater levels, they wander across vampires, witches, and the like in a sci-fi/horror setting. At the end Iggy Koopa tries to sic a Frankstein-like cyborg koopa on the Marios, but the cyborg is deactivated after three tries, then accidentally programmed to attack Iggy instead.
- World 5 - Sleet Valley: The Marios, followed by Peach and Henk as usual, enter a snowy mountainous region which includes traveling over snowy slopes, and venturing through icy caves. For the world boss, Morton Jr has brainwashed a similarly dimwitted yeti into serving him, so the player must have the yeti's attempts to attack them backfire on Morton so the dumb Koopa gets hit instead.
- World 6 - Cloud Haven: Cloud-themed levels that the largest mountain in the last world reaches up to. These levels consist of bouncy clouds, airborne enemies, and other crazy things. Naturally, the boss fight here is Lemmy Koopa, who Mario must take down by using his bouncy bombs against him and the airplane he drops said bombs from.
- World 7 - Pagoda Peaks: Returning closer to the ground, Mario and Luigi venture through a village inspired by those of medieval East Asia. This level is filled with Zen Gardens and multiple pathways that the Marios can take to the end of the world. Topping it off is a boss fight with a large Shogun-like armored ant who Ludwig Von Koopa tames with a flute.
- World 8 - Koopa Industries: A final confrontation in the industrial hellhole that Bowser has magically turned Fungaria into. This time, Peach follows the brothers into the final level for the showdown with Bowser. As we get to the final boss it's revealed that Henk’s son, named Cream, is in fact Peach's younger brother. During the resulting battle, Peach spends the fight both telling Cream he'll be saved and giving Mario/Luigi helpful advice or items to take down Bowser once and for all.
- Special World 1 - Fungaria 4030: What Fungaria will be like in the year 4030 according to scientific predictions, featuring aliens, spaceships, and even an homage to Mario Kart's rainbow road. Included is a boss fight with Tatanga, who's still looking for revenge after Super Mario Land.
- Special World 2 - Armygeddon: The eight levels of this world are only unlocked after you complete every level in its corresponding main game world. This is an ultra-hard level fill of warship and army motifs. At the end there are two bosses are fought in one level then the next. First, the Koopalings team up to operate a large machine where Mario must injure each Koopaling one-by-one to progress. Second is a second confrontation with an enormous form of Bowser.
Reception
Upon release, Super Mario World 2 was acclaimed as a superior successor to the original title. Critics and fans praised the game for its enhanced graphics and gameplay, sound design, and experimentation with a more involved story. The characters of King Henk and Prince Cream became very popular upon their initial appearances, and would become frequent characters in Mario spin-offs during the years thereafter.
[1] In my universe, the idea of an SNES CD-ROM is kept by Nintendo who opts with Phillips instead of Sony in order to try and help increase Nintendo's market in Europe. As its market in North America and its native Japan is well established by now.
OOC: Thanks to @SubparLario for letting me borrow the idea of using Mario's Whacky Worlds as a template.
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That's a massive butterfly from otl and one change things from otl
Well, back when I was using Sony for the project (before it was pointed out that Phillips would give Nintendo a European advantage) I did already have the idea of the SNES ultimately being a CD console despite being cartridge-based in early stages.
I was gonna say "SNES-CD" but didn't specifically because in TTL it was CD-based from the start.
Very interesting,the evolution of world and very nice take on it
Also my usual shout-out to @TheFaultsofAlts for being a willing sounding board on my ideas.
Better than being a cutting board, I can say that much!
Castlevania: Eternal Minuet
Released 2000 (PS1)
The Year: 1978
The Place: Los Angeles, California
The Man: LAPD Detective Pedro Belnades
This survivor horror game has Detective Belnades invesigate a series of ritual murders performed by members of a mysterious cult. Aided by occult bookshop owner Sophia Belmont and the ghost of his ancestor Sypha, Pedro must prevent the cult from resurrecting Dracula and summoning his castle into the middle of downtown LA.
Released to middling reviews, the game was praised for plot and character, but let down by extremely clunky controls and wildly inconsistent difficulty levels. The worst points being the Act One finale before Pedro meets Sypha and awakens his magic and the forced stealth section in Act Three. Completing the game on Very Hard mode opened an alternate route where the player controlled Sophia armed with the Vampire Killer Whip. Despite the two games being set over twenty years apart from each other, there was a great deal of crossover fanart between Eternal Minuet and Parasite Eve 2.
Released 2000 (PS1)
The Year: 1978
The Place: Los Angeles, California
The Man: LAPD Detective Pedro Belnades
This survivor horror game has Detective Belnades invesigate a series of ritual murders performed by members of a mysterious cult. Aided by occult bookshop owner Sophia Belmont and the ghost of his ancestor Sypha, Pedro must prevent the cult from resurrecting Dracula and summoning his castle into the middle of downtown LA.
Released to middling reviews, the game was praised for plot and character, but let down by extremely clunky controls and wildly inconsistent difficulty levels. The worst points being the Act One finale before Pedro meets Sypha and awakens his magic and the forced stealth section in Act Three. Completing the game on Very Hard mode opened an alternate route where the player controlled Sophia armed with the Vampire Killer Whip. Despite the two games being set over twenty years apart from each other, there was a great deal of crossover fanart between Eternal Minuet and Parasite Eve 2.
Forza Horizon VI
Year: 2025
Platform: Xbox Series X2 / Windows PC / Mac OS XI
Producers: Turn 10 Studios / Playground Games / Sumo Digital / Eat Sleep Play
Publisher: XBox Game Studios
When the competition for the title of the best open world racing game begins to get crowded to a truly ridiculous degree - and the revivals of Sega's OutRun and Rockstar Games' Midnight Club and the return to form of Electronic Arts' Need For Speed series made quite sure of that - the XBox and PC exclusive (though threats of antitrust suits ultimately resulted in a Mac OS XI port of the game) Forza series had to come up with some new tricks to counteract the AI-generated challenge and immersive story modes of the OutRun series, the realism of Gran Turismo, the immersive depth and almost unlimited customization of the Midnight Club games and the storyline-driven action of the Need For Speed series, the sixth installment of the Forza Horizon series found itself having to find new ways to make itself stand out in a suddenly crowded field. While Microsoft had at one point considered putting the Horizon half of the Forza series on hiatus due to the intense competition, ultimately Playground Games' ambitious plans sold Microsoft's executives, the company promising that it could blow its competition completely out of the water. In order to do that, Playground convinced the vast majority of the staff of the former Evolution Studios to join Playground Games and brought Eat Sleep Play on board as creative backup, these events annoying Sony and Criterion Games to no end but being widely considered as good moves, and the effect was very noticeable.
All of the previous Forza Horizon titles had been located in specific places and 6 was no exception, but for 6 the series moved to the islands of the Caribbean, including Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Caymans, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Leeward Islands (Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and Nevis) and the Windward Islands as far as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. This massive chain of Islands and the sizable map that resulted from it wasn't by accident, as the creators of the game wanted the game to include a truly vast selection of cultures and languages and backgrounds as well as landscapes. The volcanic mountains of the Caribbean became a defining feature of the game as well as the tropical rainforests of the Caribbean, and as befitting a game set in Caribbean the climate differences, wildlife, scenery and other elements saw a lot of time put in to make them as right as possible, and the characters of the game were spread in a big way across the many ethnic groups of the islands. The weather could be varied to a complete degree, of course - higher regions were more likely to get lightning, lower levels got monsoon rainfall and the volcanoes could spawn spectacular dust storms - and many landmarks both inside and outside the major cities were faithfully recreated, with the developers making countless trips to the region and taking tens of thousands of pictures and videos to give themselves better ideas of what to shoot for. Temperature conditions made much more of an impact for the first time in the series - colder conditions meant more engine power (particularly in naturally-aspirated vehicles) but less tire grip, while hot conditions meant more chances of overheating, and altitude was factored into the conditions as well, as higher altitude regions would have thinner air effecting both power and overheating. One of the games' newly-discovered visual effects was the heavy caking of mud and dirt onto vehicles run off road for extended periods of time, something clearly inspired by the Evolution Studios staff brought on board for the project. Many of the great places of the region's history - the Citadelle Laferriere, the Saltillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe Del Morro, Devon House, the Good Hope Plantation, the Cathédrale de St-Pierre et St-Paul, Historic Georgetown, Old San Juan, the Altos de Chavon Amphitheater - are both faithfully recreated but also central to the game's progression.
For the first time, the Forza Horizon series went to depths of having all kinds of vehicles in the game, not just cars and light trucks. Many large trucks became raceable vehicles, along with a massive selection of motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, speedboats, personal watercraft and a number of examples of tracked vehicles and hovercraft also came to the series as raceable vehicles, with modifications and customizing ability to match. The result of this was the game included countless makers who had never been involved in the series before - Mack, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Freightliner, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, Campagna, Ducati, Western Star, Pacific, Aprilia, Hino, Kamaz, KTM, Can-Am, Ripsaw, Argo, Suzuki, Arctic Cat, Donzi, Magnum, Baja Marine, Fountain, Sea-Doo, Scarab, Chaparral, Caterpillar - and whole new forms of customization that were worked into the game, turning it from a racing game just on land to on water as well and with great adventures of all kinds on water as well as on land. Each of the land vehicles had their own advantages and disadvantages of course, with motorcycles being fast to accelerate but slow to brake and road motorcycles not having the easiest roadholding, while the trucks took a long time to get going but once they did could maintain speed quite well and were almost impossible to stop. Tracked vehicles had low top speeds but fast acceleration and the best terrain handling possible while ATVs were superb off road but struggled on road and had a lower top speed but we're competitive with just about anything off of the pavement and in tight spaces.
The game's long-existing race formats gained many new additional ones, such as Scramble (checkpoint to checkpoint, how you go between them is up to you), Courier and Escort (make sure the truck gets to where it has to go, with others trying to stop you), Survive the Hunt (cars trying to run away from other cars), Rally (a time trial over a stage or stages), Knockout (a series of races where the last placed finisher is eliminated), Drifter (drifting on pavement in single, tandem or in teams), Relay (races involving relaying of starts and finishes for drivers) and Delivery Racer (race from a boat to a destination or the reverse).
Year: 2025
Platform: Xbox Series X2 / Windows PC / Mac OS XI
Producers: Turn 10 Studios / Playground Games / Sumo Digital / Eat Sleep Play
Publisher: XBox Game Studios
When the competition for the title of the best open world racing game begins to get crowded to a truly ridiculous degree - and the revivals of Sega's OutRun and Rockstar Games' Midnight Club and the return to form of Electronic Arts' Need For Speed series made quite sure of that - the XBox and PC exclusive (though threats of antitrust suits ultimately resulted in a Mac OS XI port of the game) Forza series had to come up with some new tricks to counteract the AI-generated challenge and immersive story modes of the OutRun series, the realism of Gran Turismo, the immersive depth and almost unlimited customization of the Midnight Club games and the storyline-driven action of the Need For Speed series, the sixth installment of the Forza Horizon series found itself having to find new ways to make itself stand out in a suddenly crowded field. While Microsoft had at one point considered putting the Horizon half of the Forza series on hiatus due to the intense competition, ultimately Playground Games' ambitious plans sold Microsoft's executives, the company promising that it could blow its competition completely out of the water. In order to do that, Playground convinced the vast majority of the staff of the former Evolution Studios to join Playground Games and brought Eat Sleep Play on board as creative backup, these events annoying Sony and Criterion Games to no end but being widely considered as good moves, and the effect was very noticeable.
All of the previous Forza Horizon titles had been located in specific places and 6 was no exception, but for 6 the series moved to the islands of the Caribbean, including Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Caymans, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Leeward Islands (Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and Nevis) and the Windward Islands as far as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. This massive chain of Islands and the sizable map that resulted from it wasn't by accident, as the creators of the game wanted the game to include a truly vast selection of cultures and languages and backgrounds as well as landscapes. The volcanic mountains of the Caribbean became a defining feature of the game as well as the tropical rainforests of the Caribbean, and as befitting a game set in Caribbean the climate differences, wildlife, scenery and other elements saw a lot of time put in to make them as right as possible, and the characters of the game were spread in a big way across the many ethnic groups of the islands. The weather could be varied to a complete degree, of course - higher regions were more likely to get lightning, lower levels got monsoon rainfall and the volcanoes could spawn spectacular dust storms - and many landmarks both inside and outside the major cities were faithfully recreated, with the developers making countless trips to the region and taking tens of thousands of pictures and videos to give themselves better ideas of what to shoot for. Temperature conditions made much more of an impact for the first time in the series - colder conditions meant more engine power (particularly in naturally-aspirated vehicles) but less tire grip, while hot conditions meant more chances of overheating, and altitude was factored into the conditions as well, as higher altitude regions would have thinner air effecting both power and overheating. One of the games' newly-discovered visual effects was the heavy caking of mud and dirt onto vehicles run off road for extended periods of time, something clearly inspired by the Evolution Studios staff brought on board for the project. Many of the great places of the region's history - the Citadelle Laferriere, the Saltillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe Del Morro, Devon House, the Good Hope Plantation, the Cathédrale de St-Pierre et St-Paul, Historic Georgetown, Old San Juan, the Altos de Chavon Amphitheater - are both faithfully recreated but also central to the game's progression.
For the first time, the Forza Horizon series went to depths of having all kinds of vehicles in the game, not just cars and light trucks. Many large trucks became raceable vehicles, along with a massive selection of motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, speedboats, personal watercraft and a number of examples of tracked vehicles and hovercraft also came to the series as raceable vehicles, with modifications and customizing ability to match. The result of this was the game included countless makers who had never been involved in the series before - Mack, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Freightliner, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, Campagna, Ducati, Western Star, Pacific, Aprilia, Hino, Kamaz, KTM, Can-Am, Ripsaw, Argo, Suzuki, Arctic Cat, Donzi, Magnum, Baja Marine, Fountain, Sea-Doo, Scarab, Chaparral, Caterpillar - and whole new forms of customization that were worked into the game, turning it from a racing game just on land to on water as well and with great adventures of all kinds on water as well as on land. Each of the land vehicles had their own advantages and disadvantages of course, with motorcycles being fast to accelerate but slow to brake and road motorcycles not having the easiest roadholding, while the trucks took a long time to get going but once they did could maintain speed quite well and were almost impossible to stop. Tracked vehicles had low top speeds but fast acceleration and the best terrain handling possible while ATVs were superb off road but struggled on road and had a lower top speed but we're competitive with just about anything off of the pavement and in tight spaces.
The game's long-existing race formats gained many new additional ones, such as Scramble (checkpoint to checkpoint, how you go between them is up to you), Courier and Escort (make sure the truck gets to where it has to go, with others trying to stop you), Survive the Hunt (cars trying to run away from other cars), Rally (a time trial over a stage or stages), Knockout (a series of races where the last placed finisher is eliminated), Drifter (drifting on pavement in single, tandem or in teams), Relay (races involving relaying of starts and finishes for drivers) and Delivery Racer (race from a boat to a destination or the reverse).