Speed Busters (known in North America as Speed Busters: American Highways) is a video game developed by Ubisoft's Montreal studio for Microsoft Windows in 1998. It was released for the Dreamcast in 1999 as Speed Devils. This racing game features courses with hazards such as dinosaurs, rolling boulders, and UFOs set in exotic locales, including Louisiana, Louisiana Tornado, New York City, New York City Winter, Mexico, Nevada, Aspen Summer, Aspen Winter, Canada (supposedly northern Quebec), Canada Light Winter, Canada Heavy Winter, Montreal Industrial, Hollywood, and Hollywood Disaster. The console version's career mode allows players to advance through the ranks of a fictional racing league. Colorful rivals challenge players to accomplish specific feats during races, placing bets using prize money earned from competitions. The money earned from gambling and performance is used to purchase cars, upgrade them, and maintain them. The game also supports up to five players on a single Dreamcast console.
In December 2000, Ubisoft published Speed Devils Online Racing, an updated version of the game for the Dreamcast that added online play.
Reception
Speed Busters: American Highways and Speed Devils received favorable reviews, while the mobile version of the latter received mixed reviews, according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Chris Charla of NextGen described the same console version as "the best racing game you can find on Dreamcast today." However, Jonathan Sutyak rated Speed Devils two-and-a-half stars out of five, commenting, "If you can overlook the obstacles, or even enjoy them, you may get a kick out of some of the races. Although the ability to run tracks in the opposite direction with some different obstacles is a plus, Speed Devils becomes repetitive due to the long laps of each track and the weak computer opponents. They may try to block you when you attempt to pass and will also ram into you, but ultimately, they do not provide an exceptional challenge."
Speed Devils Online Racing
Speed Devils Online Racing received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.