Game Idea: A short distraction

I spent some time the other daythinking about other game ideas I've had, and I remembered some mini-games I came up with to entertain people in my guild when I was playing World of Warcraft.  One particular crowd-pleaser was when I got everyone to make a brand new character (gnomes, of course, because they're like the little jesters of the WoW community) and we stripped off all our equipment and went for a run through extremely dangerous territory.

I actually ended up writing down my ideas for making a stand-alone game like this, though I'll probably never get around to actually making it, I thought why not post what I came up with!  So without further ado, I give you "Diaper-clad Gnome Death Race: The Game (For Shadow)"

A common sight, naked gnome about to die!

Gnome Death Race
Possible multiple game modes:
- First to reach the finish line, no other criteria.
- Least amount of deaths en route.
- Most ...treasure collected? < Don't worry about this unless the game is fully functional already.
- "Survival mode" - you have one life, how far can you get? (measure either distance or time)
- Time to reach finish line, plus a penalty for amount of deaths...
  - This may be too similar to a mix of the first two
- "Super Survival mode" (Gauntlet) - You have one life, plus you're being swarmed like crazy.
  - Every enemy that gets removed from the screen generates some sort of boost...

Basic layout:
- Pick a character - names like "Shaddohsmelz" and so forth
  - Unlock heroes like Shadowsmallz, Michrowave, and "The OG Shadow"
    - ...These unlockables are even more slightly faster?
- Bird's Eye view of the area...
- There should be a fairly limited visibility, compared to how big the race is.
- Your character is always in the middle of the screen
  - This provides good visibility in front of and behind for fairness
- HUD
  - Time (Current & High Score?), Deaths (when in sv mode, just display "SURVIVE!"), ...health?

Gameplay:
- Start in a safe area ...with several contestants? (ripe for MP functionality)
  - At the beginning of the race, enemies are few and far between, and slower.
  - As you progress through, they become more and more common until it's almost certain death
- Up/down/left/right moves the character
- There is no way to attack or defend.

Here was the finish line, yes, those are gnome bones.

- The player should be *slightly* faster than enemies (like by 3 px/frame at most)
  - That way, it's possible to move ahead not only by dying
- If/when the player dies, they will have to regenerate in place (3-5 second penalty)
  - The clock does not stop while this happens (the race happens in real-time)
- ...Possible powerups?
  - Use on pickup, or save and use whenever? Probably save and use with a key.
  - Speed boost
  - Slow down or outright freeze enemies
  - Burn up all onscreen enemies
  - Push away enemies - just move them directly away from the player about 80px

Miscellaneous:
- In-game taunts- press a key to blurt out a taunt to the other players
  - example: Press "1" for "Suck my dust!"