Yes that’s right! Long rumoured to be a near completed product that was cancelled shortly after Sega sent out those infamous yellow advertising pamphlets in software from 2001, Woody Woodpecker Racing was advertised to be releasing that year, April in fact. Sadly this never happened and the game, like many of the other games on those pamphlets disappeared without a trace.
A few short years ago, rumours began to circulate that the game was indeed ‘out there’ in the hands of a collector, now as it stands in 2023, the game has been compiled to a playable level and appears to mostly be there with choices of game modes and playable characters along with the ability to save to the VMU.
It’s incredible that in today’s world, we’re seeing such a dedication to preservation. Heading over to Twitter, you can catch the latest happenings with this game by searching out @Borman18 (Andrew Borman) who recovered the files and @frioglobal1 (Jollyroger At Times) for assisting in getting it playable to which they’ve taken the time to detail the process in getting the game running.
What’s your view on Woody Woodpecker Racing? Is it something you were planning to buy back in 2001? Or do you feel it’s something you’d play today? What’s quite interesting is that this game appears to be a straight conversion of the PC and PlayStation version, much like the rest of Konami’s output on the console but Sega’s promotional material have the game down as ‘Woody Woodpecker Extreme Racing’ perhaps there was meant to be some extra goodies in the DC version of the game or perhaps Sega got the name of the game incorrectly printed.
Dreamcast Today 