This week’s game is the sort of release that makes you stand up and proudly declare “Wait, there was a sequel to that?”
If you had an NES growing up, it’s fairly plausible that you had or played Rare’s early release R.C. Pro-Am, a cute little remote-control car racing game that is unrelated to San Antonio Spurs executive R.C. Buford:
That’s his official photo on NBA.com, by the way. I just want everyone to know that.
While it’s likely you’ve seen or played R.C. Pro-Am, it’s markedly less likely that you’ve seen or played its sequel, which was released in 1992, well after most everyone had moved on to the SNES (the game’s developer, Rare, released Donkey Kong Country less than two years after this). The games are quite similar, though – both feature a series of short races on increasingly complex courses, played in either single or multiplayer modes. There isn’t much more to it than that. Sometimes there are sweet jumps:
In order to progress from one race to the next in the single player mode, all you need to do is not finish in last place. As with its predecessor, this becomes a fairly difficult task pretty quickly, as the courses get trickier and the opposing AI becomes less forgiving. Fortunately, R.C. Pro-Am II gives you some tools to stay competitive – by doing well in races and grabbing pickups on the various courses, you can accumulate money that can be used to buy upgrades to your car. These range from bigger engines, weapons, and being extra:
Oh, and also, sometimes a biplane appears and drops bombs on you. Not sure what that’s about, but it’s very mean and I am generally against it.
Both games in the series are pretty great – there isn’t much to it, but the varied courses (there are a couple dozen in each game) and ability to power up and use missiles/bombs to your advantage makes for a quick, fun, and replayable experience. With the right add-ons, R.C. Pro-Am II even supports 4 players at once, which is somewhat of a rarity on the NES. It’s great in multiplayer, too – if a game is enjoyable when it’s the AI screwing you over, just imagine how it is when your friends are doing it.
As previously noted, this is the much less common sequel to the original, and as a result is much more expensive – while the first game can be had for $5-10 at pretty much any game store, copies of R.C. Pro-Am II go for $60-70, assuming you can find one at all. Considering their similarities, I feel like you’re probably okay skipping this one if you can find a copy of the first one. Playing one or the other does seem essential for any retro gamer, though – it’s fun, simple, and is a good piece of Nintendo history. This series is, in a very real way, a forerunner Nintendo’s other, bigger forays into the racing genre.
If you enjoy this one, I’d also recommend checking out a few other NES titles – Eliminator Boat Duel is similar and decently fun, as is the unlicensed Micro Machines game. There’s a somewhat hard-to-find game called Galaxy 5000 that also scratches the top-down racing/combat itch, and does a great job of it.
Next week’s game is really dumb and makes me wish I owned fewer games, so I wouldn’t have to review games like it. Ugh. Hopefully it’ll be funny or something. See you then?