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Rad Racer II

NES

NES

Speed, Thrills and Glory! Feel the exhilaration of road racing with lightening fast Turbo Boost acceleration to 250 miles per hour. Plus the sensational ups and downs of zooming over ruggeg terrain in the hottest cars on the road today. All it takes to handle the action is skill, reflexes an...

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Developer
Square

Released on
1990

Size
1 Player

Version
NES

Requirements
Nintendo Entertainment System

Downloads
Racing

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

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Description

Speed, Thrills and Glory!
Feel the exhilaration of road racing with lightening fast Turbo Boost acceleration to 250 miles per hour. Plus the sensational ups and downs of zooming over ruggeg terrain in the hottest cars on the road today. All it takes to handle the action is skill, reflexes and nerves of steel.
Drive to Win!
Rad Racer II gives you all-out access to 8 of the most challenging race courses ever! Including the streets of New York City, Las Vegas and San Francisco. You’ll feel more sense of speed and more responsiveness than ever before. And you can test your skills in both nighttime and daytime driving conditions. With realistic new graphics, dynamic new music and perilous new challenges -including dizzying spinouts that make Rad Racer II the most fun you’ve ever had behind the wheel!

Rad Racer II

Overview & History

Released by Square in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Rad Racer II served as the heavily anticipated sequel to one of the NES's defining early racing titles. Capitalizing on the stereoscopic 3D craze of its predecessor—which even included red-and-blue 3D glasses in the original Japanese release—this follow-up shifted its focus away from cross-country Japanese routes toward a sprawling, neon-soaked cross-country tour of the United States. While the storyline remains delightfully minimal, you are a elite street racer tasked with tearing through six distinct checkpoints, racing against the relentless ticking of the clock rather than direct opponents. Square refined the aesthetic, delivering a distinctly urban, sunset-heavy visual identity that pushed the aging 8-bit hardware to create a genuine sense of high-speed American highway motion.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

Unlike standard arcade racers, Rad Racer II relies heavily on split-second track memorization and aggressive gear management. The game introduces branching paths at specific intervals, allowing players to choose between smoother coastal highways and treacherous mountain passes. Gameplay mechanics revolve around a tight two-speed manual transmission system (Low and High gear), requiring players to shift dynamically to recover quickly from wipeouts. Your primary enemy is the environment and the unforgiving countdown timer; crashing into roadside obstacles, rival sports cars, or hairpin turns results in explosive, time-wasting crashes. To offset the brutal difficulty, players can cycle through a select soundtrack of synthesized rock tunes via the dashboard radio interface, adding a signature auditory pulse to the adrenaline-fueled asphalt action.

Keyboard Controls

Arrow Keys / D-Pad: Steer left/right, lean vehicle vertically during jumps
Action Keys: 'A' to accelerate, 'B' to brake, 'Select' to change radio tracks
Enter: Start / Pause