Rally Bike
System: NES
Release Date: September 1990
Developer: Toaplan
Publisher: Romstar
Genre: Racing
Hop on your bike and dodge obstacles and your opponents to win in Rally Bike! Place high enough to qualify to move onto the next in this top down, vertical scrolling racer. If you have what it takes, you can pass everyone that gets in your way to be the winner. If you don’t, you’ll see the game over.
The A Button is your accelerator. Hold up and you can increase your speed even further. For the most part, you can go as fast as you want. But, you can’t be reckless. It took me about a dozen attempts before I finally finished the first race. Part of the challenge is gassing up at the proper opportunity. If you try to do it on one tank, you’ll fail, but every time you stop for gas, you give up five positions. As long as you play better than the qualifying mark, you move to the next race, but if you finish in the top ten, you get to go to the tune-up shop.
There are two types of engine and three types of tires. The brock… errr… block tires should be used for Phoenix, but other than that, stick with the slicks if you get the chance. Phoenix is an off road course and those help you out in that situation. Each course is littered with obstacles ranging from trees to oil slicks, rocks to cars, and more. Other racers appear in front of you and swerve a bit to get in your way. You need to avoid them all, because one hit costs you a life and sends you back to the beginning of the race.
A helicopter appears at set points and drops a powerup item. Helper motorcycles are cool, because they wipe out anyone you sidle into. Turbo let’s you speed up faster and pass more racers. You may be gifted a bit of gasoline that might be enough to get to the next pit stop, or even finish the race. If you’re really lucky, you can get an invincibility helmet, which lets you ram through enemies in front of you for a little while.
It’s imperative that you are precise in your maneuvering. The hit box of your bike and obstacles seem to be just a bit too big, which leads to phantom crashes. (36:50) At least opposing racers crash themselves most of the time. After the fifth race, you head back to the first level. This is when I decided that would be enough for me. Then I looked at a FAQ and found that there is a final race. I think I’ll leave it a mystery.
Graphics: 1.0
Graphics are plain and honestly moving too fast to enjoy. Enemy bikes flicker when more than two get on screen.
Sound: 1.5
Music is decent enough and you aren’t hit over the head with an annoying engine noise that doesn’t add anything to gameplay.
Gameplay: 2.0
It’s very simple and really consists of altering your speed between gaining places and maneuvering around obstacles.
Difficulty: 1.5
Phantom crashes and obstacles that require you to die a few times before you know where they will be are unfortunate.
Fun Factor: 1.5
It’s not that bad once you find a way to get past the first level and get some momentum.
Overall Rating: 1.5
Rally Bike earns a C-. It’s nothing you need to go out of your way to try and may even frustrate you for awhile until you get the hang of it.