Coming for you, America.
PLAYERS: 1-2 simultaneous
PUBLISHER: Absolute Entertainment
DEVELOPER: Imagineering
GENRE: Racing
RELEASE DATE: May 1992
If a glass of moonshine and a Fried Chicken and Donut Sandwich are an everyday occurrence in your household, you might like to sit a spell with Race America. The goal is to race across America in nine patriotic tracks. The first track goes from Boston to New York, the second from New York to Washington D.C. and so on, until you get to Los Angeles (the end of American civilization). Wipe that tear from your eye, you freedom lover, and pick from one of eight borderline-racist caricatures to race against. Lance Slick is #1 and he’s the easiest, while AJ Turbo is #8 and he’s the hardest. Whichever racer you pick, whether they’re Italian (Mike Linguini), Japanese (Ito Speedo) or French (Pierre Sedan), you will race against for the entire nine tracks. Each track starts out with a quick drag race before you traverse the wide-open plains of the freeway. Hit the accelerator at the right time, avoid the potholes, and you’ll quickly take first. Shifting gears takes some time at first, but anything worth learnin’ causes blood, sweat and tears at the get go. There’s only two of you racing, which is nice because there’s not much traffic. If you’re in second place, though, you only get a third of the screen to see your car, while first place gets the entire top half of the screen. This seems pretty unfair, but it is extra incentive to get your butt back to winning, where it belongs. My only beef with racing America is the tracks themselves. Once you climb up to sixth gear and get a steady pace goin’, you don’t have to watch out for much. Traffic or oil spills won’t give you much trouble. Just remember to collect gas cans as you drive or you’ll run out of fuel; it’s not rocket surgery. Race America doesn’t taste like Mom used to make, but its about as competent a racer can be with a Democrat in the White House.*
C
*this is a joke, so let’s all relax in advance.
Latest posts by Dylan Cornelius (see all)
- By Request – New Ghostbusters II - April 4, 2014
- The 86 Worst NES Games – Part 4 - April 1, 2014
- The 86 Worst NES Games – Part 3 - March 29, 2014
8 replies on “#507 – Race America”
It’s called “Race America” and it features racial stereotypes? I wonder if that was intentional? A couple of the dudes look like Ren and Stimpy drawings!
Yeah, some of those caricatures are horrifying.
For what the NES was capable of in 92 it seems insane that someone thought to greenlight this.
Sleepyweasel
@Sleepyweasel: Yeah… some third-party developers didn’t seem to have much business sense.
Every time I start this game, I can’t help but point out to myself how this game’s opening music is so similar to the music of “Paradise City” by Guns & Roses. Don’t know who copied who…
Guns n Roses ripped this game off, just like hiw Journey stole the music for “Faithfully” from Elecman’s stage in Megaman!
-Bobolicious
The most impressive part of the bands stealing the music from these games is the time travel involved. But at least in this game, unlike Mega Man, it is very easy to reach 88mph.
I got this for 2.99 at value village and still felt like i lost out on the sale. With so many other fun racing games in the NES catalog this seems like a must skip