Wheelspinhas been designed with the Wii, and wide appeal, in mind.
They are also full of perilous pitfalls, loop-the-loops and sharp, barrier-less corners.
After the play through, I had the chance to talk with MacLean himself.
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Archer, thanks for talking with me.
To start with, tell me, what was the inspiration behindWheelspin?
I just wanted to do a really good racing game on the Wii.
Why a racing game, though?
Its interesting youve chosen to design this game for the Wii.
Its something like 40%.
Its a neverending fascination.
And they tend to get all their mates in, and they figure out how to use it.
And I thought yeah, yeah, its a game!
Sounds like the game has had a broad appeal, then.
Yeah, it did appeal to a very wide age range.
I dont think we locked out one end or the other.
[Laughs] Oh, thanks!
Yeah, its been 26 years since the first game.
How has it changed?
I suppose in the early days it was very much a pioneering industry.
Individuals like myself, Jeff Minter, all those sort of guys, who are still around.
You know, wed sit in our bedrooms, and do one game.
It would take six months or whatever, and youd sell it to a publisher.
Whereas now, its big teams, proper contracts, theres proper software lore.
But I dont think it could operate like it used to now, its far too organised.
Well, there are statistics that suggest that.
Yeah, whereas, back then, it was just half a dozen guys sat in bedrooms.
Erm, its a lot more organised.
Yeah, its a completely different challenge.
Give it another year or two, and I probably would have thrown a lot more things in there.
Do you find yourself doing less of the hands-on work nowadays, then?
Do you take more of a Creative Director role?
Well, a lot of these tracks I actually designed.
Probably to my own detriment, actually, as I should be doing other things!
But, I enjoy it.
And I dont think I would like to do an office job.
I enjoy sitting with the lads and having a laugh.
Its come about because of mobile phones.
And that reminds me very much of what was happening in the 80s, and thats good to see.
I mean, this has had a huge amount of time and effort put into it.
And weve tried to provide a well-rounded racing game that caters for just about anybody.
[PR gent informs us that this needs to be the last question] One more key question?
Whats your favourite colour?
[laughs]
Its funny you should mention that!
Hmm that I havent done?
You could sayMercury,if you want!
Yeah, I know, I absolutely loveMercury.
If I fly somewhere for eight hours, I always takeMercury.
When I started out, I boughtStar Raidersfor the Atari 800 in 1979.
And I said, How far have you got on it?
And when I saw that, I realised life had come full circle.
Ive done something great and someone had actually wanted to buy the hardware.
[laughs] So that was a good moment.
I wouldnt know what to say.
Other thanWheelspin, obviously, because Ive played so much of it!
Im thinking back to things likeLemmings, which is 15 years ago now [more like 18!
That, I couldnt put down.
I remember spending a whole weekend day and night sat in a dressing gown playing it.
You know, eating in front of the TV.
[laughs] Just trying to get to level 99!
Do you remember all that stuff?
Oh yeah, although I was very little whenLemmingscame out.
Well, the funny thing is, Sean Brennan, the boss at Bethesda.
Would you do another snooker/pool game?
[Laughs] Yeah.
I get asked this a lot!
And with the Motion Plus, in particular.
This quirky sense of humour runs through your games.
Do you think that is something missing in games now?
Well, in other peoples games!
[laughs]
Thank you very much for your time, Archer.
Wheelspins release date is yet to be confirmed, although it is expected to come out in Autumn.
For more information, visitawesomeplay.com.you’ve got the option to watch a trailer for it right here:
