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Red Bull Billy Cart inspo: Gaming’s greatest rides that could be your build
It’s hard not to look to gaming when navigating pop-culture for inspiration, and as we’ve tagged Red Bull Billy Cart as “vehicle cosplay”, here’s 11 of the best gaming rides to draw your inspo from!
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Red Bull Billy Cart is back in 2022 in all its splendiferous glory. And while our successful applicants might have the desire to build and to go fast and to win, they might not know exactly what they’re gonna do those things in. Central to the point of Red Bull Billy Cart is the cart itself, and while we all might have fond memories of different sized pram wheels, different coloured fence posts and hacked up milk crates as the carts we built and drove as kids, the truth is we’re a bit older now, have a bit more cash to splurge and an entire history of popular culture to draw inspiration from.
With that in mind, we’ve decided to look to gaming as our key source of flair to help our teams on their creative cart-building journey. Especially given videogames have presented some of the great and memorable rides in vehicular history. For the purpose of being all-encompassing, a couple of licensed examples have made their way into this list because, well, they rule in their respective videogame forms. But mostly what we have for you below is exactly the level of silly, OTT, niche and creative opportunity our soon-to-be racers should be pouring into their Red Bull Billy Cart designs.
The oddest of choices happens to be the key to an adventure
© 2K Games
Bathysphere - BioShock
If this one doesn’t give you an example of how far we’re expecting you to stretch your thinking, then hopefully the next one will, and then the one after that, and then…
Ahem.
BioShock is an all-time classic that features a wonderful design aesthetic that is all about separtist art-deco. Set in an underwater utopia-turned-dystopia, BioShock’s entire presentation was a one-of-a-kind in games and hasn’t been topped yet, though it has been homaged. And while the bathysphere is used largely and cleverly as both a narrative and loading tool to get you from level to level, its unique design and shape would make it a very cool Red Bull Billy Cart entry, and pretty fun to roll should you happen to shrug the raceway. Go on someone, do it -- make Ayn Ra... we mean Andrew Ryan proud.
Imagine pulling up alongside this at the lights...
© Warner Bros. Games
Batmobile - Batman: Arkham Knight
Rocksteady’s take on the Batmobile had every gadget the game’s missions and narrative could have wanted, and then some...
There are many, many iterations of the Batmobile throughout Batman’s transmedia life, and aside from a handful of aesthetic favourites spanning the 60s serial, the 90s animated series (as written by Paul Dini) and a run of comics with art by the enigmatic Norm Breyfogle, our absolute favourite set of Bat-Wheels is the transformer-like multi-tool Batmobile from Batman: Arkham Knight.
Able to cruise the crime-addled streets of Gotham in Bat-Sedan form as well as switch into a riot-controlling tank option, Rocksteady’s take on the Batmobile had every gadget the game’s missions and narrative could have wanted, and then some. The addition of the prisoner transport seat was especially cool, so it’s hard to look past this one.
The canoe is so central to Kratos and Atreyus' journey
© SCE
Canoe - God of War (2018)
“What?!” we hear you say? Well the inclusion of this example is twofold: One, God of War: Ragnarök will have been out in the wild come race time and will ABSOLUTELY be all the rage (provided there are no delays), so you’d be the cool team, and two: The canoe itself is a tenuous tie to the game. Instead, we’re expecting anyone crazy enough to do this to put all of their effort into dressing up as the god of war himself, Kratos. They could even pin a Mimir, or “Head”, to their loin pelt to sell the scene.
The idea here is to truly excel at going all-in on the concept of having fun. Plus the pantomime of rowing a Nine Realms-hopping magical canoe from Norse myth, downhill in Melbourne, Victoria should be too hard to pass up.
The car that talks back and reluctantly taxis you about Night City
© CD Projekt RED
Dalamain No. 21 - Cyberpunk 2077
While this writer’s personal preference would be the purchasable Type-66 “Cthulhu” or the ‘definitely is retrofuture’s version of the Batmobile, black Caliburn’, when it comes to vehicles with personality in Cyberpunk 2077, it’s hard to go past the Dalamain No. 21.
And we mean personality, literally.
If not for the car’s in-depth and Easter Egg-heavy questline, then just for what it represents on the whole in the game-world, which is that it is surprisingly the ONLY taxi-like experience in all of Night City, makes Dalamain No. 21 wholly worth recreating. Plus, who doesn’t want a vehicle that talks back? Especially given the car had something of a father at one point that you helped send out for milk one day.
(The digital angst Dalamain No. 21 carries with it is all-wheel heavy.)
A fun build you could hoon down the course with while blasting retrofuturistic Cyberpunk tunes!
An album cover come-to-life, which the game itself acknowledged
© Double Fine / Electronic Arts
The Deuce - Brütal Legend
Big engine. Shiny Chrome. Black as night. Red hot flames. And a stereo perpetually set to play metal classics...
We mean, it’s basically a hot rod, but Eddie Riggs’ ride from the seminal open-world metal music classic, Brütal Legend, would fit well in any starting lineup of any vehicular activity, anywhere, anyhow. We could even imagine it sitting on the grid alongside Max in the F1, it’s that damn cool.
In the manifested world of metal and rock album covers come to life that is Brütal Legend (please bring it back, Double Fine), the Deuce is as picture-perfect a set of wheels as it gets. Big engine. Shiny Chrome. Black as night. Red hot flames. And a stereo perpetually set to play metal classics from the likes of Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Mastadon and many, many more.
What’s not to love?
Yeeeehaw!
© Square Enix
Chocobo - Final Fantasy
There’s a Mario Kart ripoff affectionately known as Chocobo Racing, but that’s not why we chose the fan-favourite JRPG bird here. Rather, the chocobo is quintessentially Final Fantasy and as you can see from our related screen grab it is no stranger to being both ridden and raced.
Final Fantasy fans are also a die-hard bunch, and this would just be a massive celebration of the franchise, in billy cart form. Can you imagine building a cart covered in feathers with a long neck and racing it downhill for all to see?
If you can, you definitely know how funny and silly that image looks which is why this should be very high on someone’s list of potential cart builds.
The teacup ride gone awry
© Nintendo
Koopa Clown Kart - Mario Kart
In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is basically a 'Best Of' as well as a future-proof platform for the series, there are MANY classic Mario Kart rides to choose from. Especially the truly rewarding gems, such as the Master Cycle Zero bike or the Splatt Buggy ATV, but as far as looks go it’s difficult to move past the Koopa Clown kart.
This is an instantly recognisable Mario-Universe design that has long been driven by Bowser’s rambunctious son, Bowser Jnr. It would be a bold and cartoony design that would stand out in the crowd and, because of its shape, it’d likely go okay in a prang not too dissimilar to the earlier-mentioned bathysphere from BioShock.
Plus Mario Kart is such a classic, you’d win the hearts and nostalgic minds of all in attendance.
Still can't believe two Mad Maxs have now killed off the Interceptor
© Warner Bros. Games
Magnum Opus - Mad Max
Avalanche Studios thought it would be a good idea, from a narrative perspective, to kill off Max’s Pursuit Special and have the player replace the car with the “Magnum Opus”...
Another one of those licensed dealies mentioned in the opening paragraph, the Magnum Opus from the Mad Max videogame would make a fantastic cart because of the absolute cojones it has in the canon of all things Max Rockatansky.
You see, developer Avalanche Studios thought it would be a good idea, from a narrative perspective, to kill off Max’s Pursuit Special and have the player replace the car with the “Magnum Opus” -- a fanciful wasteland build crafted from various parts the player gathers from quests out in the open-world. Some people took exception to this premise, but can’t deny the coolness of the car upon its mechanical completion. (The V8 Interceptor is still king, though.)
Truth be told though, any Mad Max-inspired vehicle would be great inspiration for a cart build and would have a uniquely Aussie tie-in.
Mako sure you don't leave the lights on
© Electronic Arts
The Mako - Mass Effect
The Mako was a revelation in the first Mass Effect. The game itself featured mostly interiors for its world and level-design, so being able to roam the surface of alien planets in the physics-friendly six-wheeler was just a lot of fun, no matter how many times you got stuck or clipped through the environment. Oh, it also had a cannon, which makes this a tantalising option when considering it as inspiration for a Red Bull Billy Cart build.
The trouble with any such design is of course the touted six-wheels it was mounted upon, and if you’ve played Mass Effect you know just how much each of those wheels seemed to almost have a mind of their own. A challenging concept we reckon could get off the chain pretty quickly, but once you painted a big N7 on its side all that effort would definitely be worth it.
Nuts & Bolts was ahead of its time...
© Rare / Microsoft
Trolley - Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Spiritually, Trolley is perhaps THE vehicle on this list that belongs in a billy cart race...
We’ve included the Trolley from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for two reasons. The first being that this entry in the series is really underrated and featured a lot of forward-thinking components of game design that were used in other games moving forward. In many ways, Nuts & Bolts was a bit ahead of its time. The second being that in the game, construction was an actual thing and happened very importantly on the game’s main mode of transport, the Trolley.
To that end, spiritually, Trolley is perhaps THE vehicle on this list that belongs in a billy cart race. It’s downfall, of course, is that it’s not very well known and so people might ponder what it is you’re riding on and if you actually did any planning at all.
Still, the bird and bear would be stoked if someone were to homage their glorified shopping cart in billy cart form.
Has the Warthog ever looked better than it did in Forza Horison 5?
© Microsoft
Warthog - Halo
You knew it was coming. There’s no way this list exists without the evergreen (very green) Warthog from the Halo series making its way onto the fantasy grid. Master Chief and co’s absolute favourite form of transport has seen itself constructed in the real-world just about more than any other videogame vehicle, and was always a no-brainer here.
Most recently the Halo Warthog found its way into Forza Horizon 5 (it also had a cameo in Forza Horizon 4) where it was perhaps shown in its highest fidelity yet.
A grunt of a vehicle designed to get the job done, and something we spent hours and hours testing the physics of the first game on, the Halo Warthog is a perfect entry in this list.
Red Bull Billy Cart is the return of the fan-favourite event after some time off, and is set to represent an exhale of two years of pent up "life-pause". And we can't wait!
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