Mach Rider

1985 · Racing / Shooter · NES / Famicom

About Mach Rider

Mach Rider (1985) is HAL Laboratory's vehicular combat racer for Nintendo, in which a superbike rider with a machine gun crosses a ruined Earth in 2112, with a track editor that only Japanese players could save from.

Mach Rider in Depth

In the year 2112, Earth has been invaded by evil forces driving vehicles called Quadrunners. Mach Rider travels from sector to sector on a high-powered superbike, searching for survivors and destroying enemies in his path. The controls were more complex than most of the time: the pad steers, A accelerates, B fires a machine gun at enemies and obstacles, and up and down shift through four gears. Shifting to fourth at high speed gives an instant boost, while staying in a high gear after stopping slows acceleration. Ramming an attacking enemy into a hazard scores extra points and refills the bike's bullets.

Fighting Course is the main story, ten sectors with a choice of Track A or Track B in each, dodging oil drums and Quadrunners; when the bike is destroyed it breaks apart and reforms while energy remains. As in Ice Climber and Balloon Fight, there is no ending: after ten sectors comes a second quest of ten new ones, and then the original sectors again. Endurance Course sets a distance to cover within a time limit, where crashes cost time rather than lives, Solo Course is the same without enemies, and Design Mode lets players build their own sectors and race them in any mode.

Making Mach Rider

HAL Laboratory developed Mach Rider and Nintendo published it for the Famicom and the Nintendo VS. System arcade board in Japan in 1985. The VS. System version reached North America the same year, the NES version followed in 1986, and the game came to the PAL region in 1987. Points are awarded according to the type of enemy or obstacle destroyed, and the Japanese Famicom release's Data Recorder support meant custom tracks could be saved, as in Excitebike. The game was later re-released on the Virtual Console for the Wii in 2007, the Nintendo 3DS in 2013 and the Wii U in 2014, and on the Nintendo Classics service for the Switch in 2024.

Mach Rider Trivia

Nintendo had sold a plastic toy race car called Mach Rider in 1972, with a jumping ramp and a stick shift.
Saving custom tracks required the Famicom Data Recorder, which was never released outside Japan.
Track saving was restored internationally in the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console versions, but not on the 3DS.
VS. Mach Rider in arcades is essentially a modified Endurance Course.
Each arcade level reveals more of an image of a woman with a dagger beside Mach Rider's bike.