Put it in reverse and let’s travel back to the golden age of arcade racing games. Just a scant few months after the release of Pac-Man (1980) and two full years before Namco put us in the Pole Position with its 1982 arcade racing classic, we sunk quarter after quarter in a deceptively simple game that happened to bring a couple of firsts to arcade games.
Rally-X (1980) puts players behind the cockpit of something that might generously be described as a blue Formula One car with a little imagination and a lot of squinting. The goal is simple: Race to collect all ten flags scattered about the maze-like stage as quickly as possible. Special flags will double the points players get from picking up regular flags, making it easier to earn a free play. Rolling in the way of success is a group of dastardly red cars who will seek and destroy the player with a game-stopping crash if you’re not careful. Occasional boulders may also bar the path of the player car as you speed through the maze, and just like in real life you’ll want to avoid those. Red cars can be stunned with a smoke screen but it’ll cost you fuel and offer only a temporary reprieve while the red cars get back in gear.
Released just months after the original game, New Rally-X (1981) serves less as a sequel and more of what we might call a balance update in modern parlance. This version of the game starts things off a little easier with fewer red cars after the player in the early stages. An additional “lucky” flag bestows points based on how much gas you have left in the tank so the earlier you find it, the better.
Spend a few minutes with either Rally-X or its pseudo-sequel New Rally-X and you could be forgiven for thinking the game has more to do with Pac-Man than racing. The maze is there, the ghosts have been replaced by the aggressive red cars, and progressing from one stage to another is based on picking up items scattered about the level. Stick with the game, however, and you’ll find the bones of a racer are there if a bit buried under the maze chase genre. There is a familiar thrill in juking around corners at the last second to evade a red car and watching them speed off in the wrong direction. In both games, fuel management becomes increasingly important as you progress through the levels. Run out and your top speed will be drastically cut. Certain challenge stages emphasize a sense of urgency by asking players to collect all flags before running out of gas. The moment you’re on E, a wave of red cars is released to ruin your day.
And yet, deceptively deep gameplay is not what put these early ‘80s titles on the map. No, that would be the aforementioned firsts. Rally-X is the first Namco game to feature bonus levels predating both the experience of double-blasting lines of space bugs in Galaga (1982) and roundhouse-kicking a perfectly fine sedan for the heck of it in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991). Rally-X is also the first game to feature continuously-playing background music.
While no one has crafted a top-to-bottom, hyper realistic remake of Rally-X for modern gaming platforms, several ports of New Rally-X have shown up over the years. A version of New Rally-X is playable on the PSP version of Namco’s Ridge Racer (2004). The game was purchasable on both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Live Arcade and the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console. New Rally-X was also included in the Namco Museum Remix (2007) for the Wii. And if your heart desires to see maze racing at its finest, you can purchase an Arcade Archives version of the game on the Nintendo Switch and Sony PS4 and PS5 right now. Enjoy the game and save your quarters!
