Manx TT Super Bike

About Manx TT Super Bike

Manx TT Super Bike (1995) is Sega's Model 2 motorcycle racer set at the Isle of Man TT, whose tilting bike cabinet responded to the rider's body weight, and which supported up to eight linked players.

Manx TT Super Bike in Depth

The game is set at the Isle of Man TT, the famously demanding motorcycle race. There are two courses: the Laxey Coast course for novices, a fictional track with scenery drawn from the island, and the harder TT Course, based on the real circuit. The bikes resemble the Castrol Honda RVF750 RC45. Up to eight players can race when enough cabinets are linked, as with Daytona USA.

Its cabinet set it apart. Earlier motorcycle games, starting with Sega's Hang-On, used a bike-shaped seat the player tilted by pushing their feet against the floor, but Manx TT's machine was sensitive enough to lean with the rider's shifting weight, so players could keep their feet on the bike and steer with their bodies. The Saturn version adds a Saturn mode with practice races and a challenge course of every track in order, split-screen two-player racing and analogue control, and the Saturn and PC versions keep the soundtrack as CD audio playable in any CD player.

Making Manx TT Super Bike

Mizuguchi wanted "a game with a big graphic impact that used the player's body", combining the island's beauty with Japanese bikers' love of the open road. First shown at the 1995 JAMMA show at 20% complete, it became a worldwide arcade hit: the second most successful dedicated arcade game in Japan in Game Machine's 15 February 1996 issue and top-grossing in Australia that March. Next Generation called it "the next evolutionary step in bike racing sims".

Sega's Saturn conversion team was busy with Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition, so the port went via Psygnosis to Tantalus Interactive, an outside studio with no experience of arcade ports, which caused controversy. The result was praised as an exemplary conversion with excellent control, though critics found its extra content thin for a home game; Saturn Power thought it "the finest conversion of Manx TT onto the Saturn possible". It was the UK's third best-selling game across formats in April 1997. Perfect Entertainment made the PC version.