Original Release: SouthPeak, 1999, PlayStation
Other Releases: PC / Game Boy Color (2000)
This Dukes racer suffers from janky and sloppy gameplay but does an admirable job replicating the look and feel of the TV show within the PS1 confines.
Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home (PS1, SouthPeak, 1999)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
The Dukes of Hazzard PS1 game gets major points right out of the gate by faithfully reproducing the opening credits to the TV show, complete with the original Waylon Jennings song. OK, so the CG is very dated and the faces look a little creepy, and it kinda looks like Uncle Jesse is jerkin it in the barn, but still. Big points for effort.
The game in general gets points for trying to reproduce the atmosphere of the show, bringing back Waylon himself to talk over missions and some of the original cast to do voice work. Tom Wopat voices Luke, though you’ll have to get used to the newbie they got for Bo sounding absolutely nothing like him. James Best is also back as Rosco P. Coltrane, which was absolutely vital as I don’t think anyone else on Earth could possibly do that role. Also returning are Sonny Shroyer as Enos and Ben Jones as Cooter. Sadly, Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg) had passed away before this game was made, but I bet he would have been in it. His replacement is actually an OK sound-alike. Same story for Denver Pyle as Uncle Jesse, except his replacement sounds nothing like him.
Unfortunately, all that effort on the atmospheric front goes to waste once you actually take the wheel of the General Lee. The game is basically a linear series of missions a la Driver, but with a way worse engine and more plain backgrounds. The General Lee is fast, but handles like a tank, and any contact with anything sends you ragdolling around unpredictably. Which is a real problem when half the game is an insane Rosco barreling into you with reckless abandon, and the other half you have to pursue and hit some vehicle to run it off the road.
The best part of the game is the unintentional comedy of the psychotic suicidal police cars going flying off of everything accompanied by the voice work and a surprisingly good bluegrass/honky tonk soundtrack perfomed in Redbook Audio by The Tractors. Giving the game the feel of the show was definitely a worthwhile goal, but it’s a shame that it seemed to come totally at the expense of the actual gameplay.
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