Back on the NES for a Final Go

Rareware went two-for-two with their R.C. Pro-Am series, debuting the racing franchise on the NES in 1988 and then giving it a proper, more fleshed out, follow-up on the Game Boy in 1991. It was a concept that had merit, that could have legs if enough ideas were available. People liked racing, they found Rare’s version of it quite fun, and there was a desire to see just how far the company could push the idea. The SNES was out. Perhaps Rare could make a solid follow-up using the hardware of the newer system to make the best version of R.C. Pro-Am yet?

That’s not where the company went, though. Despite being solid hands working on Nintendo’s technology, and having even ported a version of the original title to 16-bit hardware (albeit Nintendo’s own rival Sega Genesis platform), Rare decided not to put the next game on the SNES and, instead, brought the sequel back to the aging, and by that point very much on its way out, NES platform. Why the company did this, when they were actively making games for the SNES (both Battletoads in Battlemaniacs and Donkey Kong Country would debut one year later on the SNES), is a big question, but it meant that Rare’s last work on R.C. racing ended up on NES, where it went largely unignored as the gaming audience had already moved on.

Not that R.C. Pro-Am II is a bad game, it’s just that you can’t really take it in a vacuum. Before, Rareware had the lock on the market, and they created a genre defining game in 1988 that blew all the other racers out of the water. But in the intervening years other companies had seen what Rare did and came out with their own answers. Blizzard (under their older name, Silicon and Synapse) had RPM Racing, which very much said, “we know you like R.C. Pro-Am, but would like it on the SNES, so here’s an off-brand version that’s almost as good. And then, the same year that R.C. Pro-Am II came out, Blizzard put out Rock n’ Roll Racing, and that game absolutely obliterated Rare at their own game, doing everything their sequel did, but better.

The issue is that R.C. Pro-Am II is only good when you look at it compared to R.C. Pro-Am and Super R.C. Pro-Am. From that perspective it’s a really solid game. It takes the core concepts of the previous two tiles – isometric racing with R.C. cars at blistering fast speeds – and adds in a bunch of neat ideas that really add to the package. Just within the franchise itself, there’s so much more to love in this sequel that it would be hard to go back and play the previous games due to how much more is available.

The basic setup is the same as the first NES edition. You have your radio controlled car on a track, and you get to drive it head-to-head against three other cars (which could be CPUs or other humans, with the multi-tap letting you have up to four humans in play at once). As you race around the tracks, which are varied and interesting, with road, city, and dirt tracks all on offer, you have to collect power-ups and stay ahead. The top three racers move on to the next track, while fourth place is out and has to burn a life to stay in the game. Play progresses through 24 tracks across the various terrains, loop end over end until everyone has lost their lives to the stupidly aggressive computers and the game is over.

Into that mix Rare added some new twists. For starters, the track layouts are even more varied. Now the tracks can cross themselves, and ramps, side alleys, and split paths have all been added. The map at the start of each race gives you a clear view of what you’re going to be up against, but after that you have to go off instinct and memory to stay in the lead. It’s fast and frenetic and it provides all the action that players want from the road experience that Rare gave before.

Like in the previous versions, collecting all the letters to spell a phrase upgrades your car. This time the phrase is “Pro Am II”, and there are two car upgrades to get. You can’t collect letters you already have, and there’s no end game, though, so once you have your final car you simply get to keep racing until the game is over. It’s a little sad that the end game win condition was removed this time, as that was a feature I really appreciated in the Game Boy version, and I’m not certain why Rare elected to remove it when other games in the genre were introducing their own win conditions. It makes this sequel feel more arcade-like, and much older, than it really is.

Upgrades for the cars, like engines and tires, are now purchased between tracks instead of being found on the race course. You get money on the tracks, and for placing in the courses, which gives you the money to spend after. It’s a nice way to let you feel more in control of your customizations, which is the exact reason why other racing games in the genre were also providing that same experience. Rare did it well here, but it does feel like they’re still playing catch up even as they’re trying to add in everything they can.

It really does hold the game back, in a way. As I was playing this title I couldn’t help but compare it to Rock n’ Roll Racing. Both games feature similar upgrade paths, similar varieties in their tracks, similar hazards and course obstacles. Everything this game does is done better in Blizzard’s SNES entry, and you can tell that company learned a lot not only from the R.C. Pro-Am series but also from their previous attempt in the genre, RPM Racing. Their game feels like a refinement of everything this style of racing could be, and it only came out a few months after Rare’s sequel. Blizzard heard Rare’s response, and answered so hard Rare basically quit trying.

It feels like Rare’s decision to stick to the NES, a platform they were comfortable with, for what is a fairly minor upgrade (especially when compared to the Game Boy edition) was the worst call they could make. If this game existed in a vacuum, it would be considered a safe but reliable upgrade over the first R.C. Pro-Am. But they could have, instead, moved on to the SNES for this sequel and pushed that console like they regularly pushed the NES. A more varied and interesting experience to go up against the likes of Rock n’ Roll Racing would have been the evolution this series needed. Rare could have shined with this game, instead of ceding ground to Blizzard, who then took the ball and ran with it.

In the end R.C. Pro-Am II is a barely remembered sequel that technically did nothing wrong, but it also didn’t do enough to make it stand out in a much more packed games market than Rare might have expected. The time to play it safe was two years earlier, on Game Boy. The time to be bold and push forward was 1992, on the SNES, and Rare missed that chance. The company could do great things when they wanted, but this was the safe choice, and it shows.