by Running Wild is a quirky, forgotten relic from the original PlayStation library that trades horsepower for leg power. Developed by Blue Ribbon Baker and published by 989 Studios in 1998, this title completely deviates from traditional racing game conventions. Instead of sitting behind the wheel of a high-speed vehicle, you take control of an anthropomorphic animal racer, sprinting and leaping your way toward the finish line.
There really aren’t many racers out there quite like Running Wild. By blending traditional track navigation with a dedicated jump button to clear obstacles, the gameplay feels like a unique racing-platformer hybrid. However, make no mistake: the focus is firmly on pure speed. Once you memorize the tracks and stop colliding with hazards, the momentum shifts into high gear. It feels genuinely exhilarating to maintain a perfect line, easily satisfying any retro gamer’s need for speed.
Solid Gameplay, Minimal Roster
While the core gameplay hook is incredibly fun, Running Wild desperately suffers from a lack of content. The base roster features just six colorful characters, ranging from a sprinting bull to a roller-blading zebra. Each animal boasts distinct attributes across categories like speed, acceleration, and jumping prowess, and these stats alter the handling significantly enough to impact your strategy on the track.
If you manage to conquer the game’s brutal Hard Mode, you can unlock a “secret” counterpart for each runner. However, these hidden additions are mostly just palette swaps and model tweaks. The character designs themselves are perfectly acceptable, but they lack that iconic, instantly memorable charm needed to stand out in a crowded era of 90s mascot gaming.
A Severe Shortage of Tracks
The game’s biggest roadblock is its severe lack of track variety. Running Wild ships with only four base environments, with a meager two additional tracks available to unlock later. To the game’s credit, the individual stages are highly creative, featuring unique obstacles tailored specifically to their themes—like dodging runaway minecarts in a desert canyon or leaping over arctic pitfalls.
Unfortunately, featuring only six courses total was inexcusable for a racing game in the late ’90s, especially when genre juggernauts like Mario Kart 64 and Crash Team Racing were offering massive selections of diverse tracks. You can easily see everything the game has to offer in a single afternoon.
Pure Late-90s Attitude
Visually, the game leans hard into a vibrant, Saturday-morning-cartoon aesthetic. The character models display that classic, chunky PlayStation polygon look, which fits the over-the-top presentation perfectly.
The audio design is a pure time capsule of late-90s video game “attitude.” The booming track announcer yells out lines that are incredibly campy and funny in a way that’s hard to describe, perfectly matching the era’s extreme sports vibe. When the announcer isn’t shouting, your speakers will be filled with frantic animal grunts, upbeat arcade music, and thudding impact noises whenever you inevitably misjudge a jump and smack into a wall.
Ultimately, Running Wild is a distinct product of its time, but that retro charm is precisely what makes it worth revisiting. While it doesn’t have the staying power to be a main event, it’s an incredibly fun, fast-paced curiosity that is absolutely worth picking up if you want to kill a weekend afternoon with something delightfully weird.
