Anyone who has ever seen the classic Hanna Barbara cartoon Wacky Races will immediately recognize the inspiration for Midway's new flight racing game Freaky Flyers. Not to say this is bad. The premise of a bunch of eccentric characters racing each other with equally eccentric vehicles was good fun then and it's good fun now.

In this arcade racer, players select from an initial pool of 13 characters (A certain Ms. Tracy Torpedo in an all-red Fokker tri-plane caught my attention immediately. Sorry, Penelope Pitstop) and engage in a race through some beautiful and exotic locals. What I saw at the show included a jungle level and a mountainous region. Including all unlockable characters, you'll have a total of 34 pilots to choose from. Midway is planning to include unique special characters for each platform version.

In the single-player adventure mode, player will fly their way through eight expansive levels and face four bosses. Race mode only offers two players the opportunity to play, which I consider to be a real shame since this game sure would be fun with four people on the couch, and race levels will be unlocked as players open them in the adventure mode. According to Midway's demonstrator, they're will also be mini-games which primarily consist of competitions to play within the boss levels of the game.

Environments are lush with lots of powerups and shortcuts to explore. Planes stunt and battle each other with several organic and collectable weapons. Appropriate weapon and plane sounds complete the experience. The build on the show floor had rock-solid and intuitive control that was easy to pick up and play with after minimal familiarization.

The Xbox and PS2 versions are set for a July release while I was told the GameCube version is just a little behind the others. No more specific date for the GameCube release was given. On its present flight path, Midway's Freaky Flyer looks like it is going to be a solid addition to the cartoony racing genre.