Rad Racer II

"Dang Square! What the heck did you do to the greatest racing game of all time?!"

After picking up the best racing game ever, RAD RACER, I was surprised to see that this awesome game had a sequel! I picked that bad boy up the moment I learned of its existence, and went home right away. But man, I was shocked to see how Square managed to screw up the best racer of all time.

Gameplay
Like the first Rad Racer, you are the driver of a fancy car, and you have to speed down the highway within a short period of time to get to the finish line. Sounds simple enough yeah? WRONG! Rad Racer is a cruel mistress when it comes to getting there, what with the sharp turns, the slow drivers, and the short period of time. Fortunately for you, there are several checkpoints on the way from the start to the finish, so you have many opportunities to get to the finish line.....that is if your time holds out!

Unlike the first Rad Racer however, you are stuck with only one car instead of two. Sure this won't bug many people too much, but I did like the Formula 1 racer. The benefit of being stuck with only one car is the fact that you now have a Turbo Booster which you can charge by holding back and B. This is a great way to get back into the race to the finish if you wreck your car on the way there. Another thing missing from this sequel is the classic 'Beer Vision' from the first game. Sure, it was a useless feature, but it was a great feature for a challenge!

Speaking of challenge, this game is actually easier than the first. The original Rad Racer had me going for over a month before I finally beat it. This game I beat within a few weeks since the difficulty had been lowered. This was a major upset due to the fact that the challenge is what made the original game so much fun in the first place. Dang!

Other than these minor changes from the first game, the gameplay is still the same as the original. It's a shame they got rid of two of my favorite features though.

Controls
The controls are still just as simple as they were in the first game. A is your Accelerator, B is your Brakes, Left and Right allow you to turn, Up is completely useless, and the Down button allows you to use your Turbo when used with the Brakes. The controls are completely solid, and not once will you be complaining about the controls not working. If you screw up, it's all on you for not using the controls to your advantage.

Just like the first game, you WILL be using the Brakes as much as the Accelerator. The Brakes are the only thing that save your butt from going off road and into a rock or a car. Going over 255 MPH is a hard thing to control, so you will be using the breaks to avoid some of those punks who try to swerve into you at any given moment.

Graphics
Much like the first game, Rad Racer 2 has very nice graphics. Since this game was made in 1990, the graphics are nice and colorful, and much better than the first games graphics. Your sports car is very well designed, and in a nice pink color. The other cars on the road actually look more like cars this time around due to the larger color palette. The details of the backgrounds is well designed, WAY better than what the first game could ever manage. You will think you really are at the Grand Canyon for the first few minutes you are there until you realize that you just ran into a rock.

Music and Sounds
Well, when you got that big shot Nobuo Uematsu composing the only two bits of music in this game, you know its got to be good. That's right, you heard me right. ONLY TWO BITS OF MUSIC! I know the guy's been busy composing up all of them Final Fantasy games, but COME ON! He could have gotten off his butt and made a couple of more sound tracks. Even the first Rad Racer had three soundtracks! AND THIS IS THE 1990'S! What? Too busy with Final Fantasy IV there? He could have done more to this game and that alone would have raised my score a few points.

The sound is non existent whenever you have one of the two soundtracks on. And since you seriously want to have some tunes going on while you are blazing down that highway, you won't care about how your engine sounds, or what your breaks sound like screeching down the road before you hit that sign that appeared out of nowhere. Good thing there's the Gumball Crash.

Worth Buying?
Of course! You shouldn't find this game for anymore than five bucks, and it is a sequel to the greatest racing game ever made, so go for it. If you haven't played the first game, then you will definitely like this one. If you have played the first game and enjoyed it, then get ready for a slight letdown. It is a pretty hard game, so you will be enjoying this game for a week or two before you either break a controller or beat it. Which ever comes first.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/05/04