io9: racing

Race Through A Day-Glo Hot Wheels Playset

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:30:10 PST

People who have seen the trailer for the live-action version of Speed Racer say it looks more like a video game than a movie. But what's wrong with that? If you can make a film feel like the eyeball-blasting you get from a game these days, then the marketing department, the toy department, the sequel department, and yes, even the video game department will fall over backwards trying to kiss you on the ass. So it's no surprise that Speed Racer is getting a video game for the Wii and the Nintendo DS (which unfortunately means that graphics are less than amazing), and you can check out the new images from it in the gallery below.

It'll leave your retinas in a bit of pain, but it's the only time we've ever seen anything come close to approximating the view from inside one of those Hot Wheels loop-de-loop courses we used to play with back in the day. Some of the lines in the trailer made us cringe a bit, and we'll be missing the ultraquick dialogue and the speed lines... but we're marginally starting to look forward to what these races look like both in the movie, and in the game. We just hope you can use all of the gadgets that the Mach 5 has to offer while you batter your opponents.

Take a first look at Speed Racer [Palgn]

The Fastest Solar Car In The World

charliejane — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:00:06 PST

This is the Nuna4, which won the World Solar Challenge in Australia — the fourth time in a row the University of Delft has won the race. The Nuna4 weighs less than 190 kg (without driver), and its lightweight construction means it can get up to an average speed of 90.87 km/hour. Image by Erik Van 'T Woud/AFP/Getty Images

Death Race 2000 Remake Has No Balls

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:30:51 PST

A remake of the 1975 cult classic that inspired Grand Theft Auto, Death Race 2000, is on the way next year. But this version has all the testosterone drained out. Gone are the point systems for running over pedestrians, gone is the entire revenge plot that had David Carradine after the President, and gone is the fact the "Death Race" was shown on national television. What does that leave you with?

Death Race 2000, the original, was about a genetically engineered superdriver named Frankenstein (David Carradine), who is forced to compete in a race across the country where you can earn points by running down pedestrians, babies and the elderly, who are worth up to 100 bonus points! He's hell-bent on ending both the race and the life of "Mr. President." Pretty gritty stuff.

In the remake Jason Statham plays Frakenstein, but this time he's a family man trying to get out of prison and back to his daughter on the outside. Plus the Death Race now occurs in prisons, and on closed-circuit television. Talk about missing the point entirely, and with our current fixation on reality TV this should have been a no-brainer. It's like remaking Star Wars and having the Rebels and the Imperials sit down at a negotiating table and work things out nicely.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson, who is also helming the supercar movie Spy Hunter, will be directing this, giving us even more cause for concern. Do yourself a favor next year and rent the original. At least it wasn't afraid to put the pedal to the metal and run you down.