Rally-X & Fast Lane, Japan's puzzle racing legacy... - Originally published on 1UP - April 15, 2009

Japan gave me some memorable driving experiences in the arcade. As I got older it became more and more obvious to me that the developers overseas didn't have the same points of reference as developers over here did. Their early entries into the racing genre were sometimes very questionable. In the same year that Sega released the original Monaco GP (1980) Namco had developed another car-based title. This wasn't a racing game as much as it was a puzzle game. These types of games used joysticks and buttons rather than steering wheels and pedals.

Bally and Midway like to take a lot of credit for Namco's Rally X. But we know that the developers were Japanese and looking for a way to expand the appeal of the maze game. Namco's Pac Man was a red-hot commodity so of course they'd try new things in the same format. Rally X was very much Pac Man for car fans. The cars didn't look like rally machines either but instead dune buggies. You were in control of one from an overhead perspective trying to collect all the flags on each map. All the while avoiding obstacles and opponents. To help throw your enemies off course you could use a smoke screen. There were only two things I liked about the game, the cartoonish cabinet art and the ability to put up smoke screens. Maze games never really appealed to me.

Rally X must have had its following because the game has been ported to many consoles and has ended up on a couple of "greatest hits" compilations. Most recently as an updated version in the Namco Museum Remix for the Wii. However the car maze game wouldn't end with Rally X. Seven years later Konami would introduce the world the the nonsensical Fast Lane. 

By 1987 racing games were becoming a genre that all publishers had to be good at making. Failure to make a memorable racing experience meant that you were behind the curve. That was the case with Fast Lane. It was a maze game similar to Rally X. Except instead of being chased by some buggies you were instead chased by one or two monster trucks. The purpose of the game was to drive over the lanes covered in dirt while avoiding the trucks. Clearing a level of all the debris would end that stage. Monster trucks sometimes dumped dirt back on the road. Power-ups could be collected by girls inline skating around the maze. These power-ups could be used to jump over the monster trucks, or blow them up.

Seriously folks I'm not making this stuff up. What the girls had to do with the game, why the monster trucks had to get blown up and why the red sports car had to clear the streets is completely beyond me. It's as if somebody in Japan said let's make a maze racer with things that Americans love. Almost 20 years later I still get the feeling that Japan sometimes releases titles based on stereotype than insight. Sega's Hummer and Race TV anyone?

Between the years of Rally X and Fast Lane Japan would actually make some major milestones to the racing genre. A couple were puzzle games but they got us thinking about the car as something more than a mode of transportation. Instead the car could be given a personality and made into the star. I hope to see you back here to find out what games I'm talking about.

Were there any car based puzzle games that you enjoyed? Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!