Fun racing games for the NES

[treismac]

I really dig Rad Racer (the first one anyway) and I wanna know if there are any other noteworthy racing games for the NES that you can recommend checking out.

Oh, what the hell. Let's open this up. What 8-bit to 16-bit racing games are fun? I already love F-Zero and Super Mario Kart for the SNES and Outrun for the Genesis, by the way.

[Gameguy]

Virtua Racing, Rock and Roll Racing, and Micro Machines. That's all I can think of.

[Drixxel]

My personal favourite NES racing game would be Super Sprint, there's just something about the fluid control and pint-sized scale that works. Galaxy 5000 is one I've heard some love for, it looks like a good'un. 16-bit wise, there was a thread earlier in the year that got into the Genesis racing line-up fairly comprehensively, it's worth perusing: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150868&highlight=racing.

[madman77]

RC Pro-Am on the NES is a must have IMO. I second Rock N Roll Racing and all Micro Machines games and if you have a 32x, that version of Virtua Racing is amazing. Sure it looks like early era 3D blockiness, but it's so smooth and the controls are great. It's the only game I've really played more than a few minutes on my 32x.

On the SNES: Biker Mice from Mars, Top Gear games and Uniracers.

Genesis: Championship Pro-Am and Road Rash Games.

[Duke.Togo]

R.C. Pro-AM 1 & 2, and Super Monaco GP 1 & 2 right off the top of my head.

[Leo_A]

I don't feel like making a list of great Genesis and SuperNes racers just right now (Too many to list and I'm calling it a night), but Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat for the NES is an excellent racer and the only home port of that classic arcade game. Anyone that likes games like Super Sprint and Super Off-Road should enjoy it. And as far as I can recall, it supports the multitap as well.

Here is a recent thread that has this subject pretty well covered where the Genesis is concerned.

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150868&highlight=Monaco

And if you want to get the best racer on a 8/16 bit console, you don't have to look any further than Top Gear for the Super Nintendo. You won't find a better one, in my opinion.

[InsaneDavid]

but Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat for the NES is an excellent racer and the only home port of that classic arcade game.

Agreed, it's an awesome port of the arcade game and often gets overlooked.

Rad Racer is excellent, you pretty much struck gold right out of the gate. Formula One Built To Win is an obscure yet very interesting NES game to check out. On the SNES try F1 ROC and Suzuka 8 Hours. On the TurboGrafx-16 check out Final Lap Twin, probably my favorite game on the system.

[Sunnyvale]

I give a strong second/third/forth thumbs up to RC Pro Am and Rock N Roll Racing. Another semi-expensive SNES title I haven't played enough to have an opinion on is Top Gear 3000. Dunno if it's fun or just rare.

[Leo_A]

Top Gear 3000 is fun in single player (Far too choppy in multiplayer) and easily surpasses Top Gear 2, which just seemed bland and uninspired (Although it's still a nice game that's worth playing). But it still doesn't come close to approaching the original Top Gear.

If someone wants to play Top Gear 2 though, stick with the better SuperNes version. Has the better graphics and audio of the two.

Top Gear fans should check out the two Lotus games on the Genesis (Ports of Lotus II and III for the Amiga). They were Gremlin's earlier efforts and Top Gear was basically a continuation of this series without the Lotus branding. They don't come close to the greatness that was Top Gear, but they're solid racers in the B range and worth giving some time too. And they're a real challenge.

[Parodius Duh!]

Motocross Champion for Famicom, its basically what Excite Bike 2 would have been.

[TRM]

I really enjoy Rad Racer, though this was one of the first NES games I ever played. I remember years later I lost the love for Rad Racer, since it didn't compare in so many aspects to games like Mario Kart 64, but then I went back to it and rekindled the love. For what it is worth, I also like Rad Racer 2, and I find it amusing that Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is one of the courses as it is only 15 minutes from my old house, and it is not really noteworthy outside of the role it played in the American Civil War.

I second Super Sprint. The game has a great control, and is loads of fun. I would also recommend Micro Machines, and think that it is a fun game as well. I much prefer the b/w Gameboy version, however, as I found the carts to be much easier to control than on the NES. Perhaps this stems from the fact that as a teenager I would play the Gameboy version for hours while riding in the back of the car, bored, and did not play the NES version as much.

[MachineGex]

On NES, Micro Machines and RC ProAm 2 are my top two racing games. Both are great 1 player and 2 player games(RC ProAm 2 is also a 4 player game). I will second Indy Heat and Super Sprint. Super Off-Road is another fun multi-player(1-4 players).

On SNES, Rock'N Roll Racing is a blast. Biker Mice from Mars is another SNES game worth tracking down.

As you can see, I love the over-head racing games(RC ProAM style).

[dnehthend]

I remember playing many hours of Stunt Race FX, not sure how it's held up though.. it's been a while.

[Clownzilla]

RC Pro-AM is NES gold. The only problem I have is the insanely cheap "catch-up" system the CPU uses when you get ahead.

[Ackman]

I don't know a lot of these games are okay now but they've pretty much been perfected on modern consoles. I've tried to like them but I just can't, playing the modern equivlents has spoiled me I guess.

Rally Bike Arcade is the best retro racer for me, I can't think of any retro racer which is as good or even a modern equivlent.

[mrmark0673]

but Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat for the NES is an excellent racer and the only home port of that classic arcade game.

If you haven't seen it, I did a reproduction run for Dreamtr of his unreleased Genesis version. Very fun, very cool.

[Leo_A]

Super Skidmarks is another fun overhead MegaDrive racer (Also on the Amiga). Too bad we never got a NTSC release of that for the Genesis. Would love to see someone try to attempt an NTSC hack of that so North American gamers could more easily enjoy it on their consoles.


If you haven't seen it, I did a reproduction run for Dreamtr of his unreleased Genesis version. Very fun, very cool.

Somehow that slipped by me unnoticed at both here and AtariAge. Thanks :)

Are there any screenshots or video of it out there? I didn't have any luck locating either. And what do you think of the complaint I saw that the difficulty level was too high, requiring constant use of the turbo function? It wouldn't surprise me if it's true (The same thing happens in the SuperNes port of Super Off-Road, the difficulty quickly ramps up beyond even the arcade original), but I hope it's a bit of an exaggeration.

And I didn't see anyone mention how many players it supports. I'd probably never make use of it beyond two players if I ever get a copy of it, but it's also nice to know that I have the option of purchasing a multitap and doing 3 or 4 person races if it was there.

I actually have the original coinop in my collection, but would love to check out another nice home console port of it other than the admirable NES effort that was released. Also, I forgot that the Amiga got an excellent conversion of this as well.

[MachineGex]

Super Skidmarks is another fun overhead MegaDrive racer (Also on the Amiga). Too bad we never got a NTSC release of that for the Genesis. Would love to see someone try to attempt an NTSC hack of that so North American gamers could more easily enjoy it on their consoles.


I have the cart, but cant get it to play on my TV. Anyone figure out how to make Super Skidmarks work?

[Leo_A]

I have the cart, but cant get it to play on my TV. Anyone figure out how to make Super Skidmarks work?

Unlike many MegaDrive games, your television has to still be able to display PAL, even with a region switch installed on your Genesis.

Otherwise the picture just rolls (I assume that's what happens for you?).

[shinobimusashi]

I don't get what is so great about Virtua Racing on the 32x. Looks like doo doo, plays like doo doo in my opinion.

I prefer Outrun, or Super Monaco GP for Genesis racers. Just my opinion.

[Collector_Gaming]

i always loved RC Pro Am

its such a fun game with simple mechanics that are easy to master and a great control system.

Only thing about the game that imo sucks is as stated before the catch up system where specially in the higher levels. No matter how far you are ahead.. you fuck up just once. And the other cars are either right on top of you or passing you and probably already looking to lap you just that fast!

[savageone]

A big +1 for Formula One Built to Win on the NES. I recall one night I was going through random games that I hadn't played and wasn't expecting much. Aside from Outrun I'm not a big fan of that type of racing game.. It was hours before I stopped.

[Casati]

Championship Pro-Am for the Sega Genesis has better graphics and more competition with 6 cars.

[retroman]

For the NES i always liked Off Road, and for 16bit, Outrun and Super Monico for the Genny are always good ones.