Rally Bike

Did You Know?

• The soundtrack was composed by Osamu Ōta under the alias Ree.
• In June 1989, an album containing music from Rally Bike and other Toaplan games was published exclusively in Japan by Datam Polystar.
• Tatsujin, the current rights holder, is named after Truxton's Japanese title.

Gameplay

Rally Bike is a top-down motorcycle road racing game viewed from above. Players race across six increasingly difficult stages and two bonus stages, all set in the United States, with the goal of crossing the finish line after passing a required number of competitors. Obstacles on the road must be dodged to avoid accidents, which greatly reduce fuel. Fuel is a key challenge: players must stop at filling stations to refuel, while computer opponents never run out of fuel. Running out of fuel results in a game over unless more credits are inserted. A helicopter occasionally drops items such as a turbo (which can be upgraded by picking it up again) or helper bikers that protect the player from crashing into rivals. The NES version adds a shop mechanic after each race for buying new parts. A checkpoint system respawns the player at the last checkpoint reached before a crash.

Ports

Visco Corporation brought Rally Bike to the NES, launching in Japan on June 15, 1990, and in North America that September through Romstar. This port swapped out the original stages and backgrounds, most likely because of hardware limits. A more faithful version arrived for the Sharp X68000 on May 23, 1991, handled by SPS and published solely in Japan by Sharp Corporation, though it tweaked the aspect ratio and cut some animations. M.N.M Software once worked on a Mega Drive port alongside Slap Fight MD, but it never saw release.

Reception and legacy

In July 1988, Japanese publication Game Machine ranked Rally Bike as the second most popular arcade title. Critics gave the game a mixed reception. Commodore User found fault with the controls but liked the graphics. Writing for The Games Machine, Robin Hogg and Cameron Pound praised the presentation, visuals, and gameplay, though they pointed to the later stages as a drawback. Andy Smith of ACE described it as a challenging game that would attract driving and racing enthusiasts. Anthony Baize of AllGame called it tough but fun. Ports also received mixed reviews; a Famimaga reader poll gave the NES version a score of 15.75 out of 30. The X68000 port, however, saw relatively strong popularity. Today, Tatsujin—a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge and part of Embracer Group since 2022—holds the rights to Rally Bike and many other Toaplan properties.