Pilot the Dunes! (uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com)

- uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com -

What’s better than one madcap desert racing game for Wii? How about two of ‘em? The games in question are Baja Mania and Baja Destruction from Conspiracy Entertainment.

Both games take their inspiration from the, like, totally dude-some motorsport of racing the dune-strewn deserts around Palm Springs in suped up beach-buggies. Elderly actor Paul Newman is bit of a fan, by all accounts, although he should really be taking things a little easier at his age – and his fondness for the sport is not exactly much of an inspiration to the kids, is it...?

Baja Mania is the more straightforward interpretation of the dusty action on offer. It features a variety of dune-buggies, six-wheeled ‘cats’ and eight-wheeled trucks. Mania is a one or two-player affair and comprises three variants of three distinctive terrain types, each of which containing a number of different courses. The races themselves can contain anything up to fifteen competitors.

Meanwhile Baja Mania describes itself as “Mad max meets Baja racing”, which is either an exciting prospect or a recipe for contrived racing nonsense. The “Mad Max” bit refers to the fact that these buggies pack a variety of weapons, which adds a fun combat element to the proceedings. Thereafter the action takes place in a series of fantasy locations (like the Moon) instead of the dull old Palm Springs desert.

Both Baja Mania and Destruction feature bump-mapped graphics, the usual selection of vehicle upgrades and utilise the Wii Remote’s tilt-sensitivity to control vehicle direction and speed. A bit like Excite Truck, then. But that's no bad thing - and if either game turns out to anything like as exciting and satisfyingly chunky as the latter (you’ll see what we mean!) they’ll certainly be worth a look. Keep an eye out for them in Q1 2007.