HAMSTER has been rather busy with Arcade Archives titles on the Switch, with a lot of Neo Geo releases and a planned roll-out of Nintendo arcade classics. Now Irem's debut title as part of the Arcade Archives line-up is on the way with Tate functionality (hold the Switch vertically); Traverse USA will be joining up with World Heroes this week on the Switch eShop.
Irem's 1983 title (aka Zippy Race in Japan) is both a motorcycle overhead racing and sprite scaling hybrid game affair. In good OutRun fashion your quest is to race across the old U.S of A. from Los Angeles to New York. However, things are far from being a leisurely trek across the country, since every single other racer seems hellbent on trashing you and your bike. Any sane rider would slow down, but since you're fighting your declining fuel gauge the game offers a very nice balance between risk/reward. You can even take a chance to try and grab some extra points, do slick maneuvers and even get some fuel cans along the way if you opt to race along the more dangerous bits of the track.
A challenging and fairly colourful game by 1983 standards, and a curious insight onto Irem's early days. Will you pick this up tomorrow? Were you already born in 1983? And how long until R-Type shows up?
Keep a lookout for more Irem-related news in the Nintendo Life retro coverage, because we here know that there is no better school than old school.
Comments 31
This looks okay, would have rather had In the Hunt by Irem.
Hmm... what else is on the menu?
What an odd choice for a debut. I love random arcade games but I'm not sure I'd lead off with this. Should have done Rtype Leo if they wanted to go random but impressive.
Interesting... Looks like a higher res version of Bump 'n' Jump, which amazingly played much better on the Atari 2600 than the original arcade game. The Arcade game is the most unforgiving game ever!
I hope Hamster manage to get the rights to release none Neo Geo Data East arcade games.
I just remembered, when is Vs. Balloon Fight coming out!?
Ah, this reminds me of Konami's Road Fighter, a game that I had on the good old MSX Home computer. More or less the same game, only with cars instead of motorcycles:
@SepticLemon next up is Super Mario Bros. Sometime this month I think
R-Type Leo please?
Were you already born in 1983?
I was very born by 1983, sigh.
Definite pass for me. While I'm all for old-school, I'm not going back in time that far for a simple dodge-em-up Monaco GP/Turbo style racer (though the road obstacles/curves do change the formula up). In fact, I've played this at Funspot arcade in New Hampshire during one of the tournaments. Dreaded every second of it.
Also, I'm not a fan of the "keep going 'til you're out of fuel" mechanic of the time, as it's just a way to get you off the machine quicker. That said, I do love certain titles that incorporate it. A.P.B. by Atari, Stocker by Bally and Sente, RoadBlasters by Atari, River Raid by Activision (back when they were good), etc. They all contribute a bit more to the gameplay to keep them interesting.
I want Ikari Warriors now. For about 5 minutes.
What an odd choice to start with. While the game does look like a bit of fun, i’m not sure i can play this as long as some of the other Neo Geo games. Heck i still play Mario Bros. alot. Probably just gonna get World Heroes this week. But keep em coming Hamster!!!!!!
Sure, count me in, anything for Irem
R-TYPE! R-TYPE! R-TYPE!
I didn't even know this game had a title besides Zippy Race.
First I heard of it was the Famicom version (which I oddly ended up getting two variants, one with and one without an LED on the cart), though I know it was on other early '80s Japanese consoles.
Hmm so another mobile racer?...jk.
This is too old school even for me. I'd play it briefly and no doubt have some fun....for a couple of minutes but nope, I'll be giving this a miss. I have my limits to how far back I can go and still enjoy what I'm playing enough to get my money's worth
R-Type for Xmas maybe, alongside Vs Super Mario Bros?
Born in 1966! I used to play this game in the arcades and it was published here in the states by Williams Electronics! Fun game! I Believe the name here was Motorace USA? Sat right next to Joust, Defender & Robotron 2084!! Spent hours after school on all 4 games!! So i Will grab this one tomorrow for sure!! Psst...hey Hamster...Irem also did a little gem called Moon Patrol!! Please bring that one to us!! Great game!!
Irem you say? Darn, wish it wasn't just arcade Irem... I could use some Guardian Legend, even though it was Compile who made that.
Is this the European version of Zippy Race, I wonder? The arcade cabinets that I remember from Williams in the US were called MotoRace USA, not Traverse USA.
To think that I was sad that I missed out on downloading the now delisted Irem Arcade Classics for the PS1 from the Japanese Playstation Store. Was tempted to pay $40 to buy the Saturn disc just for Zippy Race afterwards, so this works out rather well.
Super MARIO Bros needs to do what Wonderboy did. Upgrade the graphivs and keep the core gameplay in tact.
All the NES/SNES classic games should release like that on the Switch... super punch out. Super Metroid... the list goes on.
i hate the drip feeding of old/arcade games. anything else from irem would be better. r-type
And so it begins. Maybe I can set up a direct debit to Hamster for their coin-op games?
Rather have Holy Diver. That games sick
@ThanosReXXX I have a Road Fighter arcade, its an amazing game. This is really nothing like it, much slower and not really fun at all.
Just because you can release a retro game, doesn’t mean you should. It was mildly dull in the 80s, and looks beyond tedious today
@joey302 @Atariboy It is indeed. The same game under three different names.
@KingMike The Famicom version was the first time I encountered the game. Had as heck, but didin't stop me from pushing to completion. Ah, to be young and invincible...
@YANDMAN Ah, okay. I was simply going by the looks and the whole fuel gauge thing, that's something they do have in common.
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