Back in 1999, a rather wacky video game was released on the Sega Dreamcast. That bizarre game is none other than Pen Pen TriIcelon, which was a racing game featuring strange penguin hybrid animals as the playable characters. Instead of racing in cars, the animal creatures known as Pen Pens raced by running, swimming, and sliding on their bellies. Pen Pen TriIcelon may have been a bit weird, and it was met with mixed reviews upon its release, but it was definitely ahead of its time.

The Pen Pens, (Sparky, Tina, Ballery the Pen Hippo, Jaw the Pen Shark, Back the Pen Walrus, Sneak the Pen Octopus, and Mr. Bow the Pen Dog), raced in three different styles, or four if you count the combination of all three in one. Instead of just vehicle races like what’s seen in Mario Kart, F-Zero, and Crash Team Racing, there were different ways to play that all controlled differently. The only other game that did something similarly was Diddy Kong Racing with its various vehicle types for land, sea, and air travel. 

It played like no other game around, and no other game has really come close to this unique playstyle. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is sort of close to the running mechanic, but doesn’t replicate anything else. The varied racing styles changed up the gameplay for each match to keep it feeling fresh.

The main drawback, though, was how little was in the game otherwise. There were only four courses (which were at least well-designed) and six playable characters. You’ll very quickly burn through all the content the game has to offer in a rather short amount of time. If the game came out nowadays or got the opportunity to grow into a series, then there would likely be many more characters and courses. Unfortunately, though, the only time the game was ever revisited was as a reference on a poster in the Dreamcast game Blue Stinger.

The little content that was there, though, was excellent. The running, swimming, and sliding all controlled nicely and felt different from each other. The levels, being Sweets, Jungle, Toys, and Horror, had creative and unique designs that added a lot of fun to each race. Some of the sliding portions felt like a down-hill luge while others felt like you were in a giant pinball machine. Some of the swimming felt like an olympic event while others had the players dodging more obstacles. It was overall a really fun multiplayer experience. There just wasn’t a lot of it.

It was quite impressive for the time. In the combo races, the gameplay style would change during the race, which other games don’t attempt quite as much anymore. If Pen Pen TriIcelon got the opportunity to grow over time, it would have been able to become something great. Unfortunately, it looks like it’ll just remain as a Dreamcast gem that was ahead of its time.

READ NEXT: ‘Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg’ Needs More Love