Rad Racer

Rad Racer is Square's arcade-style driving game, released in Japan as Highway Star. It is a checkpoint racer: reach the next checkpoint before the clock runs out, or the run ends, and the road is full of traffic that will end it for you.

Where it stands out is presentation. The game uses a behind-the-car view with scaling sprites that was convincingly fast for 1987, and the track selection runs from city streets to canyons and night stages with a Ferrari-style dashboard in the corner. The turbo (holding B) doubles your speed but slams you into traffic you cannot see coming, so it is a risk tool rather than a default. Square also shipped it with support for the Famicom 3D System glasses in Japan, one of only a handful of games that used the peripheral. Its soundtrack, arranged from Bach and other classical pieces, is unusually distinctive for a racing game.

• ▸Checkpoint racing against a shrinking clock
• ▸Turbo boost that doubles speed at the cost of reaction time
• ▸Multiple stage types - city, canyon, night, coast
• ▸Famicom 3D System support in the original Japanese release