World's Scariest Police Chases Becomes PlayStation Exclusive

One of the pioneers of the reality show craze was Fox's World's Scariest Police Chases and, as reported previously, Fox Interactive will publish a PlayStation game based on the show. World's Scariest Police Chases for the PlayStation, which has changed considerably from earlier this year, is being developed by the European firm Unique Development Studios, and the game should be ready to ship sometime in April 2001. In respect to the planned Dreamcast and PC versions, sources have informed GameSpot that - as a result of internal development issues with the game's developer, Teeny Weeny Games - World's Scariest Police Chases will not be released on those platforms.

With the game essentially exclusive to the PlayStation, GameSpot spoke with John Melchior and Tim Ramage, two of the game's producers at Fox Interactive, about World's Scariest Police Chases for the console. According to the game's producers, the game will now be more focused on the single-player experience. It will also borrow certain elements from the television show, such as the helicopter cam during replays and narration from the show's host John Bunnell. The gameplay has also changed somewhat from the version that was originally planned. Instead of being story driven the game is now more mission based, and one that Fox Interactive feels suits the PlayStation audience.

"The original PlayStation game, which we presented at E3, was a story-based game," according to the producers. "We threw the idea out to UDS, and actually UDS had been excited to do a design based on more of a mission-based, no-story related series of races and chase missions. We both put our heads together and came out with a new design, which suits the PlayStation audience. What we have now is essentially a game that is pretty true to the flavor of the show, it features John Bunnell doing commentary to lead into each mission and he does the summary at the end of each mission whether you fail or succeed."

GameSpot will have further coverage of World's Scariest Police Chases, which will now be released exclusively for the PlayStation console, with a Q&A with the producers and the first screens of the newly redesigned game.