Neo Racer 2: Revenge of X

Summary
Neo Racer 2: Revenge of X (ネオレーサー2：xの復讐) was a game released for the NES and Famicom on December 17th, 1986. The game's lead designer was Nishimoto Gidayu (西本義太郎) and the game was developed by Ocean Games (海洋ゲーム) with the game being published by Nintendo (任天堂). This was the last Neo Racer game that Nintendo published until the release of Neo Racer: Tetra for the Wii U on December 10th, being a launch title for the system in Japan.

This game was largely ignored by the Neo Racer fans, as it was of lesser quality compared to many of the other Neo Racer games. Another reason for the ignoration was the fact that the game's designer wasn't Yoshioka Koizumi, but Nishimoto Gidayu, who was a new designer at the company.

Development
The game's development began on January 5th, just a couple of weeks after the companies last game, Spectrum Warfare (スペクトル戦) released to great responses. Ocean Games had had 3 hits in a row, each with new, young developers. This made the company higher-ups believe that if they continued with this ideal, they could continue to see the same success. So, the company chose their newest designer, Nishimoto Gidayu, to spearhead the newest game they were developing. This game just so happened to be the sequel to the companies biggest hit, Neo Racer.

The game wasn't originally going to be published by Nintendo. Nintendo heard about the development of the game, and they wanted it to be exclusively on their console, nowhere else. The game was already being developed for the Famicom and NES, however, the developers were also looking for a release on Nintendo's main console competitor, Sega (セガ). Sega had released a new console that launched a year before called the Master System (マスターシステム), known as the Sega Mark III (セガマーク3) in Japan. Ocean Games was looking to developing the game not only for the Famicom and NES but the Master System as well. However, the contract that the higher-ups at Ocean Games signed prohibited the company releasing the game on any other console besides Nintendo's. Nintendo wanted to see the game reach the same success that the original Neo Racer game had reached. Nintendo had a huge expectation for the game, hoping that it'd reach one million units sold within 6 months of release.

The game didn't have too many issues during development. However, one big issue was the fact that the company didn't have enough time to patch out all the bugs before the holiday season. One other issue was Gidayu himself. Gidayu shut down almost every single idea the other designers had, stating later that "I wanted the game (Neo Racer 2) to be my game... no one else's. This was my first game and I wanted to make it special with my own personal touch." This led many staffers to leave the project, most stating that Gidayu was very restrictive concerning ideas and creativity.

Launch
The game launched to negative reception with most critics citing the bad graphics and the innumerable amount of bugs and glitches. The game sold 20k units during the first week, very far below Nintendo's initial sales expectations. The games sales numbers grew to around 115k by the end of the year. Nintendo was very disappointed by the sales numbers, which brought them to not touch another Neo Racer game for the next 30 years.

Cups
The game would only have 7 different, unique cups. This would be unlike the first game which had 9 cups, 2 whole more cups. Much like the first game, each cup would have their own unique settings to take place in. Every cup would also feature their own color schemes. Each cup would again have 3 races that would get harder as the races progressively went on.

Neo Cup
The Neo Cup (ネオカップ) would return from the first game, being the exact same as before, with no changes. The Neo Cup would be the first cup in the game, acting as the tutorial. The cup would take place in Neo City. The color scheme would be much similar to the first game, being purple and black.

Blyte Cup
The Blyte Cup (ブライトカップ) would be the second cup featured within the game, acting as the beginner cup. The Blyte Cup would take place in the Blyte City and the color scheme would be cyan and black.

Lunar Cup
The Lunar Cup (月の杯) would be the third cup featured within the game, acting as the second beginner cup. The Lunar Cup would take place in Lunar Metropolis and the cup's color scheme would be of neon green and black.

Nova Cup
The Nova Cup (ノヴァカップ) would be the fourth cup featured within the game, being the intermediate cup of the game. The Nova Cup would take place in Nova Central and the cup's color scheme would be of yellow and black.

Juno Cup
The Juno Cup (ジュノカップ) would be the fifth cup in the game, being the advanced cup of the game. The Juno Cup would take place in Juno City and the cup's main color scheme would be of red and black.

Neo Cup II
The Neo Cup II (ネオカップ2) would be the sixth cup in the game, acting as the advanced II cup of the game. The Neo Cup II would take place once again in Neo City and the cup's main color scheme would be the same as Neo Cup's, which was purple and black. The Neo Cup and Neo Cup II cup's would become a tradition to appear within the Neo Racer series.

X Cup
The X Cup (xカップ) would be the seventh cup of the game, behaving as the extreme cup of the game. The X Cup would take place in X's lair, the main villain of the series' hideout. Players would only be able to unlock this cup through completing the game 100%, much like the first game. Also much like the first game, the X Cup would be the only cup to feature a boss, who would be X. X would be amazingly fast and the cup would feature a rainbow and black color scheme.

Gameplay
The game would utilize every single button that the console would provide.

Controls
The game's controls would be exactly the same as the first game, which is because they released on the same exact consoles.

Boost - The A-button would be used to boost. You'd simply have to tap the A-button once for the feature to work.

Hand-Brake - The B-button would be used for the hand-brake. For the hand-brake to work, you'd have to hold down the B-button and even then it wouldn't immediately happen.

Moving Forward - To move forward, you'd have to hold down the top D-Pad button.

Moving Left and Right - To move left, you'd have to hold down the left D-Pad button. To move right, you'd have to hold down the right D-Pad button.

Gradually Slowing Down - To gradually slow down, you'd hold down the bottom D-Pad while not holding down any other button.

Drifting - To drift, you'd have to hold either the left or right D-Pad buttons and the bottom D-Pad buttons.

Modes
There would be 3 different modes in the game. The 3 modes would be singleplayer, multiplayer and a track-creator mode. The track-creator mode was originally only available on the arcade version of the original Neo Racer game.

Singleplayer
Singleplayer would be the same as the multiplayer mode. The only difference would be that you'd be playing alone.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer would be about the same as singleplayer, with the only difference being that there would be two game boards on the screen. The one on the right would symbolize the second player's game board and the one on the left would signify the first person's game board. The multiplayer would be the about the same as the first game.

Merchandise
There wasn't as much merchandise for the second game as there was the first. Most of the merchandise for this game were changes to the original action figure line. Those changes will be listed in the action figure line section.

Action Figure Line
The action figure line released for the game would be exactly the same as the first game's. The only changes to the line would be for variants. Every different figure would now have a variant, especially the Jet action figure. The re-release of the line for Neo Racer 2 would become extremely rare in the coming years, with the set not being produced as much as the previous set.

The last change would be for the Jet action figure. Originally the figure wasn't correct to the actual design of the car. However, in this new release, the manufacturer of the figures fixed the little issue.

The action figure line would now release in America around the same time Neo Racer 2 came to the U.S.