Motor Raid

[Mano]

Hi guys, its been a few moons since my previous post, missing playing XL (one of the biggest mistakes in my life: giving away my 37" CRT trinitron TV, XL is a pain to play on a slow LCD)

I just wanted to give a heads up about this arcade game, Motor Raid by SEGA, its a bit old, between the WO and XL era if im correct, but its great with a NeGcon! (emulated via M2, since theres no other way to play it other than the arcade version)

The arcade cabinet consists of a bike body which is the controller and the screen in front of you, like super hang-on or manx tt superbike, needless to say, on the arcade the control is not effective, but with a negcon its awesome!

About the game itself: its a futuristic racing bike game with combat elements, every character has a melee weapon (which they can even toss and grab one from a freshly hit opponent), its a lot of fun and i have the feeling it would be a great multiplayer brawl.

NOT and Xtreme G clone, in fact this could be before that era, and is a TON more fun than any XG version imo.

Give it a try guys, i miss those old SEGA games, right to the point, instant true fun, and you could always find elements that made you come back to them, and elements that made the game deeper, like Wipeout, its a simple premise but when into it you can always find a lot of substance.

youtube videos dont make justice to the game.

again, check it out! but play it with a Neggie

[Medusa]

I have no experience with M2 emulators, but I'm going to give it a shot--this game looks really cool! Wiki's writeup mentions Akira 8) How much cooler can it get?
So you have your Neggie hooked up to your PC then? That will take some extra cables for me....

BTW, if we had sigs, this would be mine:

check it out! but play it with a Neggie
Words of wisdom :D

[Dan Locke]

M2
I was already interested to begin with, but the 3DO fanboy in me wants to play it even more now.

[Mano]

Theres a bit of a misunderstanding regarding the M2 nomenclature, the M2 im referring to is the emulator for the SEGA model 2 hardware (author, El Semi), not the M2 hardware from Panasonic and possible sequel to the 3DO that was never released.

Motor Raid was never released to the public, the only version is the arcade one, afaik.

sorry about the mixup

[Dan Locke]

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up.

Although, wouldn't an arcade machine be considered a public release?

[Medusa]

Here is the link I used to get Motor Raid.
http://www.brothersoft.com/games/motor-raid-for-model-2.html
The emulator came with the MRaid game and a pile of others. Haven't had time to try anything but the keyboard (Briefly) but I'm gonna try a Logitech flight stick with this soon.
Thanks again for the suggestion, Mano, this is a cool game!:clap
I especially loved the track I tried--very Odessa Keys-like.

[billychanxtr33m]

omg motor raid IS TEH ROCKS!! :+ :+ :+ i love the way the riders laugh when you turbo through somebody

trying to turbo boost with a keyboard is a real pain though, i would kill to be able to play it on a cabinet again.

its a shame they never ported it to the saturn, or i would probably be a lot more interested in getting my hands on one.

also robin <3 <3 <3 <3

[Mano]

Dan, yes i also think arcade is a public release, i meant never released on any home system or console, another mistake from me, got to admit i got excited posting about this game :D

Everyone: GET A NEGCON and almost any psx pad to pc adaptor will work with this game, but seriously, also like you guys mentioned its very tricky to boost with a keyboard because the game is designed to boost using the accelerator handle and is activated by decelerating and accelerating twice, the movement is read in a kinda analog way, not completely or it wouldnt even work on keyboard but its perfect with the analog buttons on the Neggie.

i knew you guys would like it!

Billy, i love Robin´s bike, you can have her dude ;) but yeah, her white and blue suit looks great on top of the bike, and another comment, i prefer the negcon to control this game more than i did the actual cabinet, theres one on a multitheater i seldom go to, i enjoy it a lot more with a neggie, the control is a lot more responsive and precise, and looks great on an lcd monitor, specially the colors.

[Mano]

I felt like posting some opinions now that i have seen what i suppose its most of the game.

As its an arcade game, theres not much lenght to it, but theres a ton of replayability (you know, looking for lower times, and of course multiplayer)

It consists on futuristic motorcycle racing with combat elements using plasma/mechanical melee weapons, the practice option lets you play all the tracks available, and the championship mode is a mini tour of tracks on different planets, but depending on the position you finish a race you will go to a different planet, available to you are 4 characters to use with different characteristics and basic weapons

Graphics are good for the time when the machine was released (1997) which puts it just after XL, and its influence really shows; Its got an anime techno look and colors and the animations flow nicely, like the riders taking different positions on the bike while turning, drifting and when jumping. the attacks vary too depending on the weapon you have and how close to an opponent you are; decent speed (not XL phantom level of course, but its good for the pace of the game) at a nice smooth framerate.

Sounds are great, the bikes sound like a mix of TRONesque and electric, the players grunt when attacking and the weapons make nice sounds too (like the big plasma scissors that go snip-snip), the music is good, dont expect the quality of a CD machine though as this arcade is solid state ROM but like i said its good.

Now the gameplay: man this is the part where the game shines, all the elements i mentioned mix very very well together, especially if you play this game with a NeGcon, the speed and pace have a great synergy with the combat, and the weapons are fun to use.

Physics of this game are great, you can really feel the bike, its grip, speed, the gravity, its nothing like other bike arcade games where the bike feels like hovering over the track, or slipping around it or sometimes, in other bike games i felt the bike like i feel my mouse go over my mouse pad, not the case with Motor Raid, its got an A on the physics department from me, of course this is a sci-fi class racing game, so there are some licenses, specially on the height of the jumps, but that makes it even better.

The game is very tight because the pace is nicely calculated, but what i like most about this, is that the machine doesnt cheat!!! (edit: it doesnt cheat much), the handicap is almost non existant! (a big surprise coming from SEGA) but this is not the case on multiplayer and it might not be that bad depending on how you want to race, before you pound me with an anvil, i will explain this:

In multi, players behind the leader will catch up pretty quick, this is a handicap of course, because after all, the game is a racing COMBAT game, the handicap, helps the combat element, and believe me, you will be pounding your friends (or they you) a lot during a 1 minute lap!, but you will still be going fast :D, it doesnt reach Mario Kart levels for a simple reason: there are no random weapons. and i think the way they planned multi works great because it makes the game much more strategic.

The boost you have is the core of the strategy, you have replenishing boost, on 3 main levels, small boost (your bike will have a blue comet-like halo surrounding it), medium boost (green comet halo), and um ... raging boost? your bike will be surrounded by a fire like meteor halo, and the character will be madly swinging its weapon during the boost, if you go near an opponent it will hit it critically; the boost levels depend on how much time you ride and how fast, you might choose to use the boost when the meter is still low to gain strategic advantage to get out of a fight, or to reach the checkered flag, or you might be patient and calculate that you want the raging boost to blast through your opponents and leave them critically hit, to minimize the handicap effect (as theres a recovery animation, they go slower while they shake the hit off, but the bikes dont take any damage, so they will always get back to running fast, dont worry).

Then theres the option to toss your weapon; you can toss your weapon away and then take your opponents weapon when you attack them bare handed or with your basic weapon, which is a weapon that you always have with you, and you cant lose it even if critically hit; you can even toss your weapon to an opponent and critically hit it, but you have to lock your sights.

Needless to say if you want pure unadulterated racing, the multiplayer mode will not be your cup of tea (im trying to find a way to disable this handicap, but it seems theres none)

But please use a NeGcon with this game, or at the very least a controller with analog steering capability AND analog buttons for accel and braking, accel is more important since the boost action is detected in an almost analog way (accel and decel twice, like reving up a bike) and doesnt work good on a keyboard or regular buttons, most of the times it doesnt work on them.




if you feel my mini review is too descriptive, its plainly a fun racing-combat game, you just have to play it, the analog way.