Mach Rider

Happy New Year an' all that jazz!

Social schedule got a bit of a busy week, with a Downtown Disney stroll doubling as a B-Day dinner, some friends coming over more often for games, shows and movies, a random get-together with best friends to eat ox tail (tasty and a bit bony), play Munchkin and watch all three Robot Chicken Star Wars specials. Good week, and more eventful than I'm used to.

Now, on to a cult classic Nintendo game of sorts, known to many by its cameos in various other Nintendo compilations such as Smash Bros.

Difficult to find a large logo for this one, so here's the American box art.

This one's easy to review, since like most launch titles there's not much to this game. You are Mach Rider, a futuristic hero in 2112 that defends Earth from the Quadrunners. On your machine gun-equipped motorcycle, Mach Rider travels to various sectors to save survivors and destroy enemies in his path. Simple story for simple arcade game play.

Controls are simple. The + Pad controls steering and gear shifts, A and B are "Go" and "Machine Gun" respectively. Goal: Gain the highest score possible. Obstacles and enemies are destroyed with the machine gun, and successful blocks replenish bullets. Classic arcade action made simple.

The main story mode, Fighting Course, is where I spent the most time on my Virtual Console purchase. Maybe I suck as these games now (I seem to really suck at Digital controls when playing many 80's and 90's actiony games when I'm more adept at and have recently played with Analogue, but thems the breaks for classic gaming), but I really do bomb this game. Hard.

I like to go fast when it's fun and/or flashy in general, but not at the expense of decent control. Mode 7 wouldn't be implemented until Mach Rider's spiritual sequel series, namely F-Zero, but this is essentially pre-Mode 7. Either way, I suck at it, haha.

Maybe because I don't have the nostalgic value of this game like I do other games, but I'd rather play F-Zero than Mach Rider. The controls seem a bit loose when compared to F-Zero (which I will always recommend along with the Excitebike series over Mach Rider), though I have the irrational thrill of enjoying this game the dozen or so times I've played the title for random, mindless and fast '85 fun.

The second mode, Endurance Course, is exactly that: last as long as you can. Of course, I suck at this one even more, but that's beside the point. It's a typical "Go Super-Sonic Fast Without Dying Whilst Under A Time Limit" mode, which I moderately enjoy when there are some benefits aside from the Arcade-Influenced High-Score mentality. Naturally, there aren't any, being an NES '85 launch title, thus I don't care for it as much. I do love the fact that because I suck so much, Mach Rider's 'death' animation, which results in him exploding into pieces when hit, then magically reforms, motorcycle an' all, is endlessly entertaining in that 8-bit way. Funny, yet annoying. The third mode is Solo Course, exactly the same as Endurance but with no enemies.

The final mode, Design Mode, lets you design courses. Pretty bare-bones, but what game wasn't back then. Never used it myself, since I generally prefer games to be created by those that generally know how, but I understand its appeal. Of special note is that the Wii Virtual Console release allows players to finally save their creations, a feature that wasn't included on the original NES release due to technological constraints.

It's not the worst five bucks I've ever spent, but there are better uses of that cash for those who don't fully appreciate Arcade-style racers. I'd point those asking for an 8-bit racer to the even simpler Excitebike, since it's more fun to me and the action is more evident and self-contained than Mach Rider. Take it as you will, but I bought it for my irrational need to support Nintendo's franchises, to complete my Nintendo collection and to honor the game that spawned F-Zero.

---

Well, this one was short and sweet! Tune in next Friday for more retro reviews, since I now have my schedule worked out: updates every Friday thanks to *gasp* pre-scheduled posts! Too bad nobody besides myself cares about these personal reviews, but it'll be nice to set some self-imposed goals once in a while, yeah? New Year's Resolutions be damned! Though I should draw more...