Neo Racer

Summary
Neo Racer (ネオレーサー) was a game released on December 14th, 1984 for the Nintendo Famicom (任天堂ファミコン) in Japan, later seeing a release on the NES in 1986. It also had an arcade release a year after release. The game did fairly well and went on to spawn many sequels, spin-offs, 2 manga series, and 3 successful anime.

Development
Neo Racer began in the head of Yoshioka Koizumi, a new designer at Ocean Games. The company was finishing up a new game called Bumper Balloons (バンパーバルーン). While the company was polishing Bumper Balloons, they created a new team to develop new ideas for a game. While at work, Yoshioka was looking out of his office window, contemplating different game ideas. He was looking down at the roads, and the cars filling those roads. His eye caught a very popular car in Japan at the time, the Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R (TSi). This car ignited his imagination, with him immediately drawing up the car on a piece of sketch paper. He believed that the car looked futuristic and imagined a futuristic car game. But what type of game would it really be? As Koizumi was a massive fan of the Super GT races, he decided that the game would be a futuristic racing game. He presented his ideas to his team and they loved it.

The game officially began development on June 22nd, 1982. The game originally was being developed for the NEC PC-8801mkII per request of the companies higher-ups. However, the game's console was changed when the company Nintendo (任天堂) caught wind of the development of the game. Nintendo offered to publish the game unless they released the game on their console, the Famicom and that they signed a 3-year contract which meant that Ocean Games (海洋ゲーム) couldn't develop any games for any competing hardware or couldn't create their own hardware if so inclined.

Ocean Games didn't have many problems in the development for the game. The main issue for the developers was restarting development for the Famicom after Nintendo made their publishing offer. The game had already been about 50% completed at the time Nintendo made their offer. This added a whole year to the game's development, as it was originally going to release on October 23rd of 1983.

Launch
The game received good scores and sold around 50k units in its first week on the market. Eventually, those sales numbers grew to be around 500k units sold overall. The game had such a good initial reaction, that the Japanese gaming magazine Hobby's Jump (ホビーズジャンプ ) made a manga about the game, marking the first appearance of the now series staple character Jet. The manga lasted from the year 1984-1988 when the magazine shut down. The game also went on to be featured in many different Ocean Games game compilations released over the years.

Arcade Release
The arcade release of the game was about the same as the Famicom release, with the only difference being with the graphics, as the graphics for the arcade release were very much improved. It would also have all the same modes as the Famicom release. The release did fairly well in Japanese arcades, spawning a mini-arcade version years later. The game would cost 25¢ to play for 3 lives. The arcade release was still being published by Nintendo.

Controls
The controls for the arcade release would consist of two joysticks and 4 buttons, all doing the same things that they did in the Famicom release.

Cups
The game would have the same amount of cups as in the Famicom release, with one exception. The X Cup would be omitted and replaced with a cup titled the Fire Cup (火災カップ). The Fire Cup would take place in a lava pit with stalactites falling from the ceilings, breaking part of the track as you drive.

Track-Creator Mode
The arcade version would also have another thing different from the original. It would also have a track-creator mode where you could design your own track that you, and only you, would be able to race on. It wouldn't save the track.

However, this mode would have a time limit to build your tracks. So, if you wanted to build a track for longer, you'd have to enter in more quarters to keep playing and building. This would really help the game become a greater success than if it didn't have the mode. This would also really intrigue players if they already had the game on the Famicom so they could look forward to something that they didn't have on their own release at home.

Cups
This game would have 9 different cups for the player to go for. Each cup would take place in a different setting. Each cup would also have 3 races attributed to it. The 3 races attached to each cup would get progressively harder as the races would go on.

Neo Cup
The Neo Cup (ネオカップ) - The first cup presented to the player. This would take the place of the tutorial cup in every single Neo Racer game. This first cup would take place in Neo City. The color scheme would be black and purple.

Stellar Cup
The Stellar Cup (恒星カップ) - The second cup would be a beginner's cup. Everything would be a little bit faster than in the Neo Cup. This cup would take place in the Stellar Center. The color scheme would be dark blue and yellow.

Metro Cup
The Metro Cup (メトロカップ) - The third cup would be an intermediate cup. As with the Stellar Cup, everything would be a little bit faster than the last cup. This cup would take place in Metro Metropolis. The color scheme for Metro Metropolis would be neon green and black.

Jet Cup
The Jet Cup (ジェットカップ) - The fourth cup would be an advanced cup. This cup would take place in Jet City. The color scheme for Jet City would be of red and black. (City name is not connected with the main character of series)

Callista Cup
The Callista Cup (カリスマカップ) - The fifth cup would be considered "Advanced II". This cup would take place in Callista Metropolis. Callista Metropolis' color scheme would be orange and black.

Kocros Cup
The Kocros Cup (コクロスカップ) - The sixth cup would be considered "Hard I". This cup would take place in Kocros City. The color scheme for Kocors City would be light blue and black.

Zorro Cup
The Zorro Cup (ゾロカップ) - The seventh cup would be considered "Hard II". This cup would take place in Zorro Megalopolis. Zorro Megalopolis would have a color scheme of white and black.

Neo Cup II
The Neo Cup II (ネオカップ2) - The eighth cup would be considered extreme. This cup would take the player back to Neo City but would include a whole new track, connected with the original track. This would be the fastest track that you would be able to see at the start of the game. The Neo City II's color scheme would be purple and black.

X Cup
X Cup (xカップ) - The ninth cup would be considered "Extreme II". This cup would take place in an underground lair called "X's Lair". You'd only be able to unlock this cup through completing the game 100%. This would also be the only cup to feature a boss, who would be named "X". X would appear in many more upcoming games as the main boss. This cup would be amazingly fast. X's Lair would have a rainbow and black color scheme.

Gameplay
The gameplay for the game would be of your average racer, save for the boost feature. The game would utilize all of the buttons the console provided including the d-pad, A and B buttons, and select and start.

Controls
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 - 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 two different modes in the game: singleplayer and multiplayer.

Singleplayer
Singleplayer would be about the same as multiplayer, with the only difference being one game board on the screen.

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.

Graphics
Neo Racer's graphics would be fairly advanced for the Famicom. These graphics would be more advanced than Super Mario Bros. (スーパーマリオブラザーズ. ) but not as advanced as something like Super Mario Bros. 3 (スーパーマリオブラザーズ. 3) per se.

Every car would have a slightly different aesthetic, usually just a different color. However, the one car that the player would drive would look slightly different than the other cars, as it would be a little bit more angular.

Every different cup would have a different color scheme, but every race that would be in the same cup would all look identical. (Check the "Cups" section for what all those color-schemes for the different cups would be).

Merchandise
There was much merchandise released for this game over the years, including, but not limited to: a mini-arcade machine, a manga series, a plushie, action figures, etc.

Manga
The manga series was produced by the Hobby's Jump Japanese gaming magazine. The manga series focused on an original character they created named Jet. (噴射) This character went on to become the main character in the games series, appearing in every single game (besides spinoffs) in the series. The manga had an OK reception and kept on for about 2 years.

Plushie
The plushie was modeled after the main car that the player would use during the game. The plushie was filled with little poly-pellets and was released exclusively for Japanese claw-machines.

Mini-Arcade Machine
The mini-arcade machine looked and played just like the original arcade game released, just much smaller.

Action Figure Line
The Japanese action figure line released for Neo Racer mainly just featured your opponents' cars. There would also be an incredibly rare limited edition figure which would be of the player's car painted in gold.

Player's Car
Officially known as Jet's Car (ジェットの車), this was the first car released for the set. It was also the most popular among fans of the game. The colors of the car would've been red and black. However, this is canonically incorrect to the rest of the series. Because the only game to feature the player's car in red and black was the original game. In every other main series game, his car has been red, blue, black and yellow.

Opponents' Cars
The opponents' cars would be the same model, just different colors. There would be 8 different variants of the same model released, matching how many opponents there were in the game.

X's Car
X's Car would match that which was shown in the game. It would be all black, with red tints for the windows and windshield. The car would have slightly different design and model than the rest, being slightly more angular than the rest.

Re-Release
The action figure line was re-released in 2007, fixing the car design issue and a couple of other problems the original line had had.