Rad Racer

North American box art.

Rad Racer, known as ハイウェイスター, Haiuei Suta "Highway Star" in Japan, is a car racing game developed by Square and published by Nintendo for the NES in 1987. The game is clearly meant to try and capture some of the success of OutRun.

I'm not sure if I played Rad Racer before or after I saw it in The Wizard, possibly after. I think I first played it when my step brother brought it over with him when he came to visit. Either way, I remember it being very hard, and on my first attempt, I couldn't even finish the first stage. After several tries, I got good enough to get to the third, maybe fourth track, but I've never much cared for the game, but then, I don't like racing games much in general.

Status

I own the game, but have not beaten it.

Review

Overall: 2/10
Best Version: NES

Good

The various backgrounds are quite attractive.
The game has a wide variety of cars you're racing against.
Like OutRun, the game lets you change the radio station, and even while driving, but, unlike OutRun, the music isn't that great.

Bad

It's disappointing that there is only ever a single type of car on the road at any given time.
The F1 machine is the same as the 328 Twin Turbo, just with a different skin, and when driving it, all the other cars become boring F1s as well.
The 3D doesn't work.

Ugly

The game is just too hard. Even with practice, I have a hard time getting past the first few roads.
The game isn't that fun either. The first track shows you pretty much everything you will see for the rest of the game.

Box Art

The original Japanese box art. It's a nice looking car, but it doesn't really invoke the thrill of racing.
The horrible pixel art of the NES early releases in the USA. Terrible.
My favorite is the European art. It's a decent cartoon that actually depicts racing in action.