Released on the Turbografx-16 in 1989, the top-down, multiplayer racing game Moto Roader is now available for the Wii™ Virtual Console™. With classic gameplay reminiscent of RC Pro-Am or Micro Machines, Moto Roader 1-ups them all with 5-player multiplayer.  Now you just gotta find 4 friends who can handle all the action.

Moto Roader is set in the near future of 2015 (which, when the game was released in 1989 was 26 whole years away, not just 8) in a world very different from our own.  Hunger, war, and crime have been eradicated.  Machines do all of the work and computers do all of the thinking.  However, this world isn't as Utopian as it might seem: the youth are bored, and to have some fun they invent a new game.  A game of both man and machine.  A game in which speed doesn't always win and skill, strategy, luck, and especially firepower can make all the difference.

The game features seven courses, each with 8 heats.  If you're the points leader (point are awarded based on where you finish in each heat) at the end, you become the Moto Roader Overall Champion.  In order to become the champion, you'll need futuristic help.  At the beginning of each heat, a heli-jet flies along the track; pay attention and remember where the turns and obstacles are.  Then you get the opportunity to upgrade your car.  Choose wisely between your tires, body, brakes, handling, engine, turbo, or special items like extra gas tanks or weapons.  Each upgradeable part has several levels to choose from, each more expensive than the last.  Once you begin racing, keep in mind that the game features an unconventional rotational steering system.  But if you fall into last place, don't worry; there's an automated catch-up feature that floats your car back into contention.  Of course, that happens to your opponents, too.  This handy catch-up feature keeps everybody fighting for first place, but if you fall behind too many times, you'll run out of gas and lose.

Moto Roader is a blast to play with friends, but even if you can't find those 4 other people to play with you, you can race against tough computer opponents.  Think you're up to the Moto Roader challenge?

Hudson