Updated 2-23-2019
Most NES veterans should be familiar with one of the best racing games on the NES way back in 1987. But, quick show of hands- how many knew that Squaresoft made it? Yep, the developer responsible for Final Fantasy released Rad Racer (Highway Star in Japan) just months before its famous RPG. Rad Racer always stands out as one of my fondest childhood memories. I can still recall my dad sitting there in the living room with us as we took turns racing and wiping out after hitting a tree. He was just as thrilled with all the high-speed excitement as we were. Fortunately, many years after my first go with this game, it still hasn't lost much of its appeal.
The main objective of the game is to win a series of eight races spread across the world. You won't have to worry about coming in first place, but you will be racing against a sometimes unforgiving timer. If you have a flawless race, you're good to go. But if you crash just once, you'll quickly find yourself furiously trying to make it to the next time extension flag. Some locations are entirely fictional, while others are based on real-world places. For instance, the first location is called "Sunset Coastline"; the next race's area is on the "San Francisco Highway." Regardless of which courses you're on, they’re all fun to race.
You have a choice of driving one of two cars: the sexy Twin Turbo or the F1 Machine. Neither car differs in speed or handling, but I do recommend choosing the Twin Turbo because you'll race against different kinds of vehicles on each course. If you select the F1 Machine, you'll only be racing against other F1 Machines of various hues of the same color on each course. Assuming that you've chosen the Twin Turbo, you'll be competing against cars like the Volkswagen Bug, Lamborghini, Corvette, Testarossa, and a few other licensed automobiles. As you progress through the courses, the CPU cars drive more aggressively. So exercise caution when you hit that turbo and try to speed through a traffic-littered straightaway.
The heart and soul of this game are the gameplay and smooth controls. The game does a decent job of giving you a convincing sense of speed, and your car feels balanced. I never found myself fighting with its handling mechanics. Also, I’ve always appreciated that the game doesn’t limit your use of the turbo boost. I find it quite surprising that you’re more or less free to use it as liberally as possible. The only real setback is that you can crash your car if you rear-end another vehicle at top
This was one of my favourites growing up. If memory serves me correctly, I was able to get to the 2nd race, but never got any farther.
That's interesting. I don't think I made it very far in the game myself when I was a kid. I probablly topped out at around the 3rd stage or so. I mostly watched my older brother get further in the game. He never beat the game, but he knew the code to skip to the end scene.
I eventually beat it as an adult though. Good game.
I LOVED this game growing up. I think I used the 3-D feature once or twice (I think you hit select to get it into 3-D mode, and you had those funky glasses). This game and Pole Position were the games that got me into the racing genre. Excellent read, and thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Man, I'm so jealous-- even when I played it as a kid, we didn't have the luxury of having it brand new with the 3D glasses. My brother got Rad Racer from a flea market back in 1991.
But yeah, Rad Racer and Pole Position II on the Atari 7800 were responsible for getting me into the racing genre. Rad racer was the better expeirence of the two for me.
Oh I used to love buying games from flea markets. There was this guy who sold carts for $5 each. He didn't care it was a sports game, to one of Tengen black carts, to random RPGs. Everything was $5.
Funny thing, I never played Pole Position on a console. It was always the arcade stand up or my favorite the sit down. The first and only time I played Pole Position at home was when I bought a Jaguar and bought the game.
Pole Position was on the Jaguar? As in Atari Jaguar?? I'm floored.
My bad, I was thinking of Checkered Flag. 
I looked it up and I remember an Indy car, but it turns out it was Checkered Flag.
good review, Jamie! I was more of an Outrun man, and I never even heard of this one until lately, I think. But it seems fun!
Yeah, OutRun was what I call "the original Rad Racer". Excellent game from Sega in its own right.
Great review Jamie! I love this game. It's my favorite racing game on NES. I had played it recently, and was surprised by how tight the courses are. One mistake can be utterly devastating! I had bought Rad Racer 2 as well. It seemed pretty generic though. One of the songs you could choose was called "Sing Yourself". (no music) That's just laziness lol. 
That cracks me up for some reason.
Dude, I was sooo disappointed when I finally got to play Rad Racer 2 in more recent years. The music is boring, and like you said...that whole "sing yourself" crap was stupid. Of course, by the That game came out, most of Square's energy was focused in Final Fantasy games anyway.
I played Rad Racer at a friend's house during the 80s. I hadn't played it since. It would be nice to have this game in my collection.
If you ever decide to get yourself an NES, Rad Racer won't run you for much cash thankfully. It's an easy find. Thanks for reading!
I already own a couple NESs. Or is it NESes? 
This was one of the few games I could get my dad to play on the NES.
Yeah, me too! My dad played this one sometimes as well. One of the few games I could get him to play.
Rad racer was great. I also remember putting many hours into Knight rider and Excite bike. No,I'm not old! I'm youthfully challenged!
I didn't like Knight Rider all that much. I could never get past the first level. Maybe I was just playing it wrong.
Excitebike is my jam! That was the only other racing game we had on the NES back in the day.
This was a really impressive racer for the NES. Come to think of it, other than this and Rare's RC Pro-Am, I can't really think of any other good NES racing games.
Square has always been good at pushing the limits of the hardware it is making games for. They've made a few racing games since then, like Driving Emotion Type S, but they haven't really made an impact amongst the Ridge Racers, Gran Turismos, or Forzas of the modern gaming world. It's also kind of mind-blowing that Nobuo Uematsu did the music for this one. I got to meet Mr. Uematsu in person at Distant Worlds in Omaha this past March. I got a picture with him, conductor Arnie Roth, my wife, and myself, as well as having him autograph the front cover of my copy of Final Fantasy IX.
You got a picture with Uematsu?? Can you post it?
Thanks to you, I ended up booting it up for a few minutes. My memories of this game were of never getting to the first checkpoint, thanks to what, 6 freaking 90 degree turns? Talk about brutal as a youngster! I also never knew about the turbo or music, either. heh They really should have let you choose 2 or 3 courses to start. Okay, now I just finished the first course for the first time ever. Go me! Those other cars are very crummy, though, changing lanes when you're trying to pass. I guess I know what I'm doing for a little bit, now. heh
