A retro racer gets ported to modern systems, but is it any good?
Moto Roader MC is a racing game whose first version, created by NCS Studio for the TurboGrafx-16 console, hit the scene in 1992. It’s a top-down racer like many others back then, though the first entry landed in 1989 and this is effectively the 3rd game in the series. It launched at a weird time as more modern racers like F-Zero and Super Mario Kart were either already out or about to come out, so it’s little wonder that I had never heard of this series till now.
But it seems to have some fanbase or it wouldn’t have been re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007 and Wii U Virtual Console in 2017. Having played it for a decent amount of time, I can say it retains the classic top-down racing formula and even has a few tricks up its sleeve I wasn’t expecting, such as a track that is designed like a dungeon built out of several squares and trying to remember which square your car will appear from next becomes increasingly difficult to remember.
Achievement hunters will be pleased to know that to gain the elusive 1000 Gamerscore, you simply need to play each track once. You don’t actually even need to finish the race; you can just leave it till the last car passes the finish line before moving on to the next. The cars are fast, so races usually last roughly between 1-2 minutes at most. The game is incredibly cheap as well, so whether you are after boosting your Gamerscore or after some retro racing, the game won’t break the bank.
The visuals are simple but classic of the TurboGrafx-16 and still retain a level of charm to them, while maintaining a steady framerate throughout. The music and sound effects are naturally retro by design and too has a decent level of charm.
The Verdict
Moto Roader MC is a decent port of a retro classic worthy of the top-down racing genre. It’s a nice throwback to simpler racing games and at an affordable price, hard to pass up for retro fans.