Speed, Thrills and Glory! Feel the exhilaration of road racing with lightening fast Turbo Boost acceleration to 250 miles per hour. Plus the sensational ups and downs of zooming over ruggeg terrain in the hottest cars on the road today. All it takes to handle the action is skill, reflexes and nerves of steel. Drive to Win! Rad Racer II gives you all-out access to 8 of the most challenging race courses ever! Including the streets of New York City, Las Vegas and San Francisco. You'll feel more sense of speed and more responsiveness than ever before. And you can test your skills in both nighttime and daytime driving conditions. With realistic new graphics, dynamic new music and perilous new challenges -including dizzying spinouts that make Rad Racer II the most fun you've ever had behind the wheel!
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Some improved visuals and new tracks with more or less the same gameplay and only car this time around. Not enough for a sequel three years after the first to move the needle much.
Rad Racer II definitely brought back some nostalgia – that classic synth soundtrack! But man, it's tough. It takes a lot to master those courses, and the AI opponents are pretty unforgiving. Even after a few hours I still felt like I was wrestling the car more than racing it.
Canje por Noobody66
Better than the first in some ways, worse in others. Somehow the first feels better, and I think looks better. The second has fewer instant-crash cars, which were an annoying part of the first. The first feels more like you win by pushing your speed as fast as possible and minimizing (but not eliminating) wrecks. The second feels more like you win by avoiding all wrecks and memorizing the patters of opposing cars.
It is certainly never gonna be my go-to racer when I am in the mood to play one, but for what it was, the original Rad Racer was still a solid title. The sense of speed was good enough for the system, the gameplay was fast and exhilarating, the graphics looked pretty nice, the game ran smooth enough for how fast things got, and while I certainly wouldn’t recommend you try to beat the game like I did, it could still provide a fun time if you try it out. And hey, it was successful enough to where it is one of the most noteworthy racers on the NES, even being featured prominently in the giant marketing cash-grab known as The Wizard. But, what many people don’t know is that… this is not the only Rad Racer game out there. It’s not surprising that not too many people know this either, because not only did it only get released in North America, but it also got barely any coverage or buildup whatsoever due to a little title known as Final Fantasy coming out just a month earlier. Nonetheless, the sequel was still made, and it was simply known as Rad Racer II.
As a sequel to a pretty basic racing game without too many gimmicks to make it stand out too much, you should probably know most of what to expect from this title. It is as basic as sequels can get, keeping the main gameplay intact almost exactly, while mainly focusing on improving on some of the flaws of the original game, and based on what we got as a result, I would say that they did a pretty good job on that. When comparing the two, I would definitely say that Rad Racer II is the superior game, and while I wouldn’t say it is that much better than the original, it still manages to do enough to where I would say it is an improvement, and now my preferred choice whenever I want to play a racer on this system…….. which won’t be often at all, but hey, it counts for something.
The graphics are, for the most part, very similar to the original game, but of course, the sprites and 3D aspect of the tracks have been improved upon, making it easily the best looking of the two, the music takes a backseat, as the game mostly consists of nothing but car noises, but whenever there are tracks to listen to, they do sound nice and fit appropriately for the type of game this is, the control is the exact same as the previous game, but it feels MUCH better to control this time around, and I will get to that later on in the review, and the gameplay is also the exact same as the original, so if you were a fan of the original game, chances are you are going to like what this one gives you too.
The game is still your typical racing game, where you take control of only one car this time around, which isn’t that big of a deal since there was no difference between the cars in the original, take on yet another set of eight tracks that take place around the world, race your way to the final goal point before time runs out, make sure to turn and brake when necessary to maintain a good, consistent speed and not fall behind, and try your best to either avoid the many other racers on the track, or bump them out of the way so you can get ahead and make progress. And that is still just about it. If you have played the original game, you know exactly what you are getting here, which isn’t a bad thing in this case.
First of all, turning in this game feels SO much better than in the original game. Sure, turning in the original game wasn’t really that bad, but this game’s turning is much more loose compared to the original, making it feel much better and easier to handle, making for a much smoother journey. And speaking of which, this game overall is somewhat easier then the original as well. If you remember back in my review of the original game, I mentioned how it was basically a perfectionist game at many points, where you needed to be absolutely perfect in order to have the chance of making it to the end of the stages, which did make the experience more frustrating than it needed to be at points. Thankfully, this game feels much more forgiving, where I did end up fucking up at plenty of points, and a lot of the time, I was able to successfully recover and get right back on track. Not to mention, I also discovered I can go much faster if I hold down the up button on the D-pad. Not sure if that was in the original game or not, but either way, it is here, and it makes life so much more simple.
That being said though, this is still Rad Racer through and through, which may not be the best thing for most people. For those who thought that the original game was too difficult for them, or maybe even too simple, then this game isn’t going to change your mind on that whatsoever, as it is practically the same experience through and through for the most part. That wasn’t necessarily a problem for me most of the time, but it is still something that is worth pointing out nonetheless. What also doesn’t help much is that, despite how this game is easier then the original, it is still REALLY hard. For the first three or so levels, it isn’t too bad, but then it gets pretty ruthless in the later stages, with all the same do-or-die moments, along with plenty of points where making turns without precise braking meant it would be the end of your run. I did say the turning was better, but I never said it made the game that much easier.
Overall, despite being almost identical to the original game in almost every way, this is definitely an improvement over said original game, and it still remains a great NES racer even after all this time, one that you can still have fun with in the right mindset and mood. I would definitely recommend it for those who were fans of the original game, as well as those who like racing games from this era, because it should fulfill those race cravings that you may have. And if that doesn’t convince you, then maybe the knowledge that there is no 3D mode (at least from what I can tell), and no forced advertising with the Power Glove paired alongside it. I see that as an absolute win.
Game #414
As a sequel to a pretty basic racing game without too many gimmicks to make it stand out too much, you should probably know most of what to expect from this title. It is as basic as sequels can get, keeping the main gameplay intact almost exactly, while mainly focusing on improving on some of the flaws of the original game, and based on what we got as a result, I would say that they did a pretty good job on that. When comparing the two, I would definitely say that Rad Racer II is the superior game, and while I wouldn’t say it is that much better than the original, it still manages to do enough to where I would say it is an improvement, and now my preferred choice whenever I want to play a racer on this system…….. which won’t be often at all, but hey, it counts for something.
The graphics are, for the most part, very similar to the original game, but of course, the sprites and 3D aspect of the tracks have been improved upon, making it easily the best looking of the two, the music takes a backseat, as the game mostly consists of nothing but car noises, but whenever there are tracks to listen to, they do sound nice and fit appropriately for the type of game this is, the control is the exact same as the previous game, but it feels MUCH better to control this time around, and I will get to that later on in the review, and the gameplay is also the exact same as the original, so if you were a fan of the original game, chances are you are going to like what this one gives you too.
The game is still your typical racing game, where you take control of only one car this time around, which isn’t that big of a deal since there was no difference between the cars in the original, take on yet another set of eight tracks that take place around the world, race your way to the final goal point before time runs out, make sure to turn and brake when necessary to maintain a good, consistent speed and not fall behind, and try your best to either avoid the many other racers on the track, or bump them out of the way so you can get ahead and make progress. And that is still just about it. If you have played the original game, you know exactly what you are getting here, which isn’t a bad thing in this case.
First of all, turning in this game feels SO much better than in the original game. Sure, turning in the original game wasn’t really that bad, but this game’s turning is much more loose compared to the original, making it feel much better and easier to handle, making for a much smoother journey. And speaking of which, this game overall is somewhat easier then the original as well. If you remember back in my review of the original game, I mentioned how it was basically a perfectionist game at many points, where you needed to be absolutely perfect in order to have the chance of making it to the end of the stages, which did make the experience more frustrating than it needed to be at points. Thankfully, this game feels much more forgiving, where I did end up fucking up at plenty of points, and a lot of the time, I was able to successfully recover and get right back on track. Not to mention, I also discovered I can go much faster if I hold down the up button on the D-pad. Not sure if that was in the original game or not, but either way, it is here, and it makes life so much more simple.
That being said though, this is still Rad Racer through and through, which may not be the best thing for most people. For those who thought that the original game was too difficult for them, or maybe even too simple, then this game isn’t going to change your mind on that whatsoever, as it is practically the same experience through and through for the most part. That wasn’t necessarily a problem for me most of the time, but it is still something that is worth pointing out nonetheless. What also doesn’t help much is that, despite how this game is easier then the original, it is still REALLY hard. For the first three or so levels, it isn’t too bad, but then it gets pretty ruthless in the later stages, with all the same do-or-die moments, along with plenty of points where making turns without precise braking meant it would be the end of your run. I did say the turning was better, but I never said it made the game that much easier.
Overall, despite being almost identical to the original game in almost every way, this is definitely an improvement over said original game, and it still remains a great NES racer even after all this time, one that you can still have fun with in the right mindset and mood. I would definitely recommend it for those who were fans of the original game, as well as those who like racing games from this era, because it should fulfill those race cravings that you may have. And if that doesn’t convince you, then maybe the knowledge that there is no 3D mode (at least from what I can tell), and no forced advertising with the Power Glove paired alongside it. I see that as an absolute win.
Game #414
A very basic early NES racing game. A sequel to the first Rad Racer with very little changes between the two. As difficult as you’d expect from an early NES title.