Mach Rider

Racing

October 1985 (Nintendo)

I’m going to admit my bias now and say that I do not like driving a stick. I can’t drive one in real life and I suck at it in games. I just can’t wrap my mind around needing to change gears. I’m the kind of racing game player that uses the breaks as little as possible. So with that in mind let’s take a look at Mach Rider.

Mach Rider has 3 game modes: Fighting Course, Endurance Course, and Solo Course. I started with the Solo Course because I figured it would be the easiest one. I had to go 22km in 250 unites of time. The first time was an utter disaster because I didn’t no about changing gears. I actually hit up just button mashing and thought it was a speed boost¹.

It’s really not too bad. Barrels are on the side of the road and you blow up if you hit one, then magically come back. Puddles made of water or oil are randomly on the road. They didn’t seem to do anything beyond making a squealing noise at first. I tried to run into them to see what happens and it turns out you get thrown to the side. Start turning enough and they don’t effect you much.

Next I tried the Endurance Course. Shorter race, only 20km) but enemies are thrown in. This is where I really started to suck. I couldn’t finish the Solo Course. Throw people into the mix and I got to watch myself blow up a lot. Not too much fun. You do have a rear view mirror. It didn’t help me too much and I continually had people sneaking up on me.

Onto the Fighting Course. 10km race and no time limit. Just going out and shooting bad guys and not not running into barrels. I still sucked.

From a graphics standpoint the game’s not too bad. Obviously old school NES, but that’s perfectly fine with me. The sound is decent as well.

It’s not a game that I think I’ll be going back to. Not because it’s bad though. I just know it’s not a game I’m into. I just couldn’t seem to switch gears and watch for enemies and watch where I’m going at the same time. But you need to try it for yourself.