Highway Star/Rad Racer is an amazing game, and my fave arcade style racer for the NES if not for the NES/SNES/Genesis era (the Lotus/Top Gear games are pretty good too). As BIL said, the only real issue is the music change being on the down button for the D-Pad, select being used for 3D glasses mode (amusing, but not worthwhile). In an emulator with a controller with extra buttons some clever remapping can be done to address this, and it's not too problematic on a console, but it's just a slight issue on an otherwise brilliant game.
The sequel on the other hand is bad.
Not the first time I complained about this. Rad Racer 2's got some serious and fundamental mechanics changes that are all for the worse. To explain why, it's important to understand how the first game worked:
The original Rad Racer is an arcade style racer with aggressive enemy vehicles instead of traffic that attempts to actively shift lanes into your lane. The traffic is actually much more aggressive than Outrun's arcade games, whereas in Outrun the traffic is randomized but not directly aggressive, or is fixed to the lane (Outrunners, Outrun 2 and 2006) with only rival racers being unpredictable. In Rad Racer however, enemy vehicles follow specific rules: 1) cars appear at random in empty lanes, but only one car can be in a lane at a time 2) can lane change to get in front of you if a lane is empty, 3) new vehicles that appear may travel at low speeds to present a crash hazard.
2) and 3) are based on the level. Later/harder levels mean more aggressive lane changes, and around level 5 or 6 (which ever one Los Angeles is) if you pass a vehicle there is a very high chance that a new vehicle appearing in an empty lane will be travelling at low speeds, low enough that a rear end collision results in a crash and not just a speed reducing bump. However, all of this is manageable in the original Rad Racer due to the "bumping" technique, where you drive into the back end of a vehicle to bump into it repeatedly. A rear end collision where your speed is slightly faster than the enemy vehicle actually speeds up the car in front, and since all enemy vehicles travel at a fixed speed, you can speed up one car and then drive behind it in the same lane. As long as it's in front of you, you know 100% that you never have to worry about another car changing lanes into the same lane and sideswiping you.
Essentially, the traffic is way more eager to sideswipe you or mess you up than in an Outrun game, but if you use the "bumping" technique you can keep an enemy car in front of you and know that lane is safe against aggressive lane changes.
But then there's the second game, which essentially turns into a bad memorizer that's much less fun to play:
Rad Racer 2 only has 2 songs, and if you have music going it completely disables engine hum sound effects. Songs cannot be changed mid level, either.
Traffic is much less fun to deal with. Similar later Outrun games, traffic appearances now appear to be fixed, with cars appearing in specific lanes as you drive. Occasionally you will encounter a specific red enemy that aggressively lane changes to block you (hello stage 7, you jerk). Traffic loves to go at low speeds as before, especially on the later levels, presenting a crash hazard.
The biggest change is that "bumping", where you hit the rear of another vehicle to speed it up, no longer works. You can't drive behind another vehicle anymore, safe from a sudden aggressive lane change attempting to sideswipe you. Traffic encounters instead must be dealt with purely via passing, but compared to Outrun games with fixed traffix, Rad Racer 2 is far, far nastier. Some cars do not lane change at all it seems, but the ones that do are harder to deal with than anything Rad Racer 1 threw at you.
In Outrunners, Outrun 2/2006, or the Wangan Midnight games, traffic encounters on each stage are generally fixed and travelled at reasonable speeds relative to yours. Outrun 2/2006 visibly adjusts traffic speed according to your own speed, so you never have a case of driving into a car that's barely moving. Special opponent/rival vehicles move around across lanes more, but don't outright attack you or try to crash you, and are basically moving hazard more than anything (if you're playing multiplayer against another player that's a different matter).
In Rad Racer 2, traffic can appear that moves slowly enough that it's like there's a parked car in the middle of the road, and you have to deal with dodging these in addition to enemy cars that essentially are a battle to get past. It's brutal. Because of the huge potential gap between your speed and another vehicle's, with no techniques to bypass this, you effectively have way less time compared to other arcade racers to identify threats that appear on the road.
Unlike Rad Racer 1, you appear to accelerate from a stop more slowly, and time is less forgiving. There is a "boost" function where if you are stopped, holding down on the D-Pad will charge up a meter and pressing accelerate when maxed will shoot you off from a standstill at top speed, but this is incredibly dangerous since it is entirely possible to do this and immediately crash into a car that is barely moving. As a result of these changes, a single crash is more likely to be fatal.
Traffic in Rad Racer 1 is more dynamic, but is actually manageable and fun, whereas in Rad Racer 2, it's an unforgiving, thankless chore to play more than anything.
Stevens wrote:More Metal Warriors.
Brilliant game. The multiplayer on it is actually a lot of fun to play too. I find the singleplayer campaign is pretty tough!
Blinge wrote:I actually cannot get through Contra stage 1 without dying lmao.
Get the spread weapon, and hold onto it for dear life. There is a massive, massive drop in difficulty with the spread weapon, it's that good at damage as well as screen coverage.
Super C has some decent alternative weapons that don't appear in Contra, but generally the spread weapon is the way to go there too.
