Software:Rally Bike

From HandWiki
Short description: 1988 video game
Rally Bike
Rally Bike arcade flyer.jpg
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Toaplan
Visco Corporation (NES)
SPS (X68000)
Publisher(s)Taito
NES
  • JP: Visco Corporation
  • NA: Romstar
Sharp Corporation (X68000)
Composer(s)Osamu Ōta
Platform(s)Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System, X68000
ReleaseArcade
  • WW: May 1988[1]
NES
  • JP: 15 June 1990
  • NA: September 1990
X68000
  • JP: 23 May 1991
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)

Rally Bike[lower-alpha 1] is a racing arcade video game originally developed by Toaplan and published by Taito in May 1988.[2] In Rally Bike, players compete against computer-controlled opponents in races across locations in the United States . Initially released in arcades, the game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System and X68000 by different developers.

Rally Bike was met with mixed reception from video game magazines and dedicated outlets that reviewed the game when it launched in arcades and its ports. As of 2019, the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now-affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia alongside many other Toaplan IPs.

Gameplay

Arcade screenshot

Rally Bike is a top-down motorcycle road racing game where players observe from above and races across six increasingly difficult stages, along with two bonus stages, all taking place in the United States , with the main objective of crossing the finish line and passing an established number of competitors.[3][4] Along the way, players must also dodge incoming obstacles scattered on the stages to avoid any accident, which causes a great reduction of fuel.[3][4]

Fuel is a major obstacle of the game as well, as players must refuel their bike by stopping at the filling station, however this will also cause competitors to take advantage, as they never run out of fuel and running out of it results in a game over unless more credits are inserted into the arcade machine to continue playing.[3][4]

On occasions, a helicopter will come and drop an item to the road during races, ranging from turbo (which can be increased a second time by picking up the turbo item again) to helper bikers that guards the players from crashing against rival racers.[3][4] In the NES version, a shop mechanic where players can buy new parts to improve their vehicle is introduced after completing each race.[4] The title uses a checkpoint system in which a single player will respawn at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before crashing.

Release

Rally Bike was released in arcades worldwide in May 1988 by Taito.[1] The soundtrack was composed by Osamu Ōta under the alias "Ree".[5][6][7] On 25 June 1989, an album containing music from Rally Bike and other Toaplan games was published exclusively in Japan by Datam Polystar.[6][7]

Ports

On 15 June 1990, a Nintendo Entertainment System port of Rally Bike developed by Visco Corporation was first released in Japan and later in North America by Romstar on September of the same year.[8] The NES version does not keep the same stages and backgrounds, likely due to hardware limitations. On 23 May 1991, The title later received a faithful conversion to the Sharp X68000 by SPS and only published in Japan by Sharp Corporation, although it contains several minor differences when compared to the original version such as the modified aspect ratio, missing animations, among other changes.[9][10] A Mega Drive conversion was in development alongside Slap Fight MD by M.N.M Software, but it never released.[11]

Reception and legacy

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame(Arcade) 4/5 stars[12]
Famitsu(NES) 20 / 40[13]
Oh!X(X68000) 7/10 stars[14]
Power Play(Arcade) 66%[15]
Technopolis(X68000) 3/7 stars[16]

In Japan, Game Machine listed Rally Bike on their July 1, 1988 issue as being the second most-popular arcade game at the time.[17] The game received mixed response from critics since its release in arcades.[15] Commodore User criticized the controls but praised the graphics.[18] Both Robin Hogg and Cameron Pound from The Games Machine commended the presentation, visuals and gameplay but noted the design in later levels to be one of the game's negative points.[19] Andy Smith of ACE regarded the title as "challenging stuff that's bound to appeal to driving and racing fans".[20][21] Anthony Baize of AllGame deemed it to be a difficult but enjoyable experience.[12]

Other ports of Rally Bike were met with mixed reception from reviewers.[13] Public reception was also mixed: readers of Famimaga voted to give the Nintendo Entertainment System version a 15.75 out of 30 score in a poll.[22] However, the X68000 version proved to be relatively popular.[23]

In more recent years, the rights to the game and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[24][25][26][27][28]

Notes

  1. ↑ Also known as Dash Rascal (Japanese: ダッシュ野郎, Hepburn: Dash Yarō) in Japan.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006) (in ja). タイトー (Taito); 東亜プラン (Toa Plan); Taito America; R (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. pp. 43, 50, 137, 162. ISBN 978-4990251215. https://archive.org/stream/ArcadeGameList1971-2005#page/n44/mode/1up. 
  2. ↑ "東亜プラン". Gamest (Shinseisha) (49). September 1990. https://archive.org/stream/gamest0049#page/51/mode/2up.  (Translation by Shmuplations. ).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "ダッシュ野郎" (in ja). Shooting Star. http://shootingstar.game.coocan.jp/dashyaro.html. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Rally Bike instruction booklet (Nintendo Entertainment System, US)
  5. ↑ Abeto, Kobatsu (September 1989). "東亜プランインタビュー". PSG (F.S.G Club) 10.  (Translation by Shmuplations. ).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "H24X-10005 | TATSUJIN ~TOA PLAN GAME MUSIC SCENE ONE~". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. https://vgmdb.net/album/5540. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kotowski, Don (1 August 2012). "Truxton -Toaplan Game Music Scene-". Video Game Music Online. http://www.vgmonline.net/truxton/. 
  8. ↑ "FAMICOM Soft > 1990" (in ja). GAME Data Room. http://tk-nz.game.coocan.jp/gamedatabase/software/DB_NTC1_FC1990.html. Retrieved 2019-10-29. 
  9. ↑ "The Softouch - Software Information: ダッシュ野郎". Oh!X (SoftBank Creative) (110): 28. June 1991. https://archive.org/stream/OhX1990-1995/Oh%21X_1991-06#page/n29/mode/1up. 
  10. ↑ Matsubara, Keigo (2019). "X680x0ソフトリスト963タイトル" (in ja). Video Game Search. http://vgsearch.info/list/x68_all2.htm. 
  11. ↑ "「スラップファイト3671」開発日誌 Beep21出張版 #0" (in ja). Beep21. note. January 28, 2022. https://note.com/beep21/n/ncd94d6b47320. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Baize, Anthony (1998). "Rally Bike (Arcade) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=10864&tab=review. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: ダッシュ野郎 (ファミコン)". Famitsu (ASCII) (103): 17. June 22, 1990. https://archive.org/stream/bi-weekly-famitsu-no.-103-june-22nd-1990/Bi-Weekly%20Famitsu%20-%20No.%20103%20June%2022nd%201990%20%28Compressed%29#page/n16/mode/1up. 
  14. ↑ Zenji, Nishikawa (August 1991). "The Softouch - Game Review - ダッシュ野郎". Oh!X (SoftBank Creative) (112): 37. https://archive.org/stream/OhX1990-1995/Oh%21X_1991-08#page/n38/mode/1up. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lenhardt, Heinrich (April 1989). "Automatenspiele - Rally Bike". Power Play (Future Verlag) (13): 67. https://www.kultboy.com/index.php?site=t&id=7798. 
  16. ↑ "Gaming World - ダッシュ野郎". Technopolis (Tokuma Shoten) 10 (107): 25. July 1991. https://archive.org/stream/technopolis-1991-07/01_journal_1991-07#page/n24/mode/1up. 
  17. ↑ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (Amusement Press, Inc.) (335): 21. 1 July 1988. 
  18. ↑ "Arcade: Rally Bike - Taito (2 x 10p)". Commodore User (EMAP) (59): 98. August 1988. https://archive.org/stream/commodore-user-magazine-59#page/n97/mode/1up. 
  19. ↑ Hogg, Robin; Pound, Cameron (August 1988). "Confrontation: Coin-Op - Rally Bike". The Games Machine (Newsfield Publications) (9): 81. https://archive.org/stream/the-games-machine-09#page/n80/mode/1up. 
  20. ↑ Smith, Andy (September 1988). "Arcades: Trike Force! - Extended Play... -- Rally Bike". ACE (EMAP) (12): 27. https://archive.org/stream/ACEIssue12Sep88#page/n26/mode/1up. 
  21. ↑ Smith, Andy (June 1989). "Arcade Ace: Extended Play... - Rally Bike". ACE (EMAP) (21): 23. https://archive.org/stream/ACEIssue21Jun89#page/n22/mode/1up. 
  22. ↑ "Famicom ROM Cassette All Catalog '91 全787本 5月10日号特別付録 - ダッシュ野郎". Famimaga (Tokuma Shoten) 7 (9): 276. 10 May 1991. 
  23. ↑ "The Softouch - Software Information: なんとフアランクスがあのパロに!". Oh!X (SoftBank Creative) (113): 29. September 1991. https://archive.org/stream/OhX1990-1995/Oh%21X_1991-09#page/n30/mode/1up. 
  24. ↑ "ライセンス事業" (in ja). TATSUJIN Co., Ltd.. 2019. http://tatsujin.tokyo/custom.html. 
  25. ↑ Bravo, Roberto (12 September 2018). "Nueva compañía "Tatsujin" asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan" (in es). Gamercafe. https://www.gamercafe.cl/2018/09/12/nueva-compania-tatsujin-asegura-tener-gran-parte-de-las-ips-de-la-extinta-toaplan/. 
  26. ↑ "Tatsujin". exA-Arcadia. 2019. https://exa.ac/en/editors/tatsujin/. 
  27. ↑ Bravo, Roberto (25 January 2019). "Tatsujin, los dueños de Toaplan, anuncian que están trabajando para exA-Arcadia" (in es). Gamercafe. https://www.gamercafe.cl/2019/01/25/tatsujin-los-duenos-de-toaplan-anuncian-que-estan-trabajando-para-exa-arcadia/. 
  28. ↑ "［JAEPO2019］TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA-Arcadia。出展コーナーの模様を紹介" (in ja). 4Gamer.net. Aetas Inc.. 26 January 2019. https://www.4gamer.net/games/408/G040821/20190125146/. 

External links



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Rally_Bike&oldid=3452856"