Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A City Bike Assembly Incorporated Into Racing Video Games

By Rob Sutter


I feel as though kart racing video games are all the rage right now. "Mario Kart" is undoubtedly popular with audiences and with Sony's "ModNation Racers" and Sonic the Hedgehog trying to claim a piece of the pie as well, it doesn't seem like this genre is going to die out. I wish we'd see more bikes in these games because the potential versatility would be something to witness. Maybe - just maybe - we will get to see a city bike line being incorporated into this field.

When you're looking at the many kart racing titles, you may see a theme of common characters being utilized. Whether they're ones from Mario's games or Sonic's, I think it goes without saying that many of us are attracted to these titles because of the familiarity that these characters possess. However, to totally shun quality in favor of brand recognition is unacceptable. While keeping quality, if I were developing such a game, I would like to incorporate the many big names from old arcade classics.

One such name that people can recognize off of the bat is Pac-Man. In his arcade games, he's seen as a featureless yellow dot with a mouth but his look has evolved since that point once he started to make the leap into console gaming. He's simply a rotund yellow ball with arms, legs, and a big goofy face to give him a harmless identity that would draw in younger audiences in particular. Seeing him pedal alongside many others would be fun to see but who would be such combatants?

There are quite a few characters from arcade games who I believe could ride alongside Pac-Man upon a city bike towards the goal. These bikes, marketed by companies the likes of Linus Bike, would be able to make such a hectic race possible. What about implementing Dig Dug, the character from the game of the same name, onto the track and through the action? I believe the spaceship from "Galaga" could make an intriguing unlockable, thereby illustrating the possibilities that developers could take.

What's been described here is something that I don't believe come close to encompassing the entirety of an arcade-centric racing game. What about other series like "Tower of Druaga" and "Xevious" receiving a fair shake? Possibilities are certainly present and I don't think that there should be any limits on the issue, either. If a wild mindset is taken on in this regard, then I have all of the reason to believe that the game will be widely successful and people will flock to it.




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