Everything Has an NES Game, Including RC Cars and Surfboard Design Shop Mascots
NES Catalog #094-95
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R.C. Pro-Am
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
DEVELOPER: Rare
RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1988 (US), Apr. 15th, 1988 (EU)
By the time R.C. Pro-Am released in February 1988, the NES already featured plenty of “driving” games. Excitebike, Mach Rider, Rad Racer, Spy Hunter, etc. Games where you drive as fast as possible in a vehicle, not to compete against any person or group of people, but to rack up points and feel awesome.
R.C. Pro-Am is the NES’ first racing game, one where you not only drive a vehicle but also compete against other opponents for placement. With its cutesy cars, short tracks, and power-up items strewn throughout, one could say that R.C. Pro-Am is a progenitor of the kart racing subgenre popularized by 1992’s Super Mario Kart for the SNES (I am not the first person to notice this, but it still bears repeating).
The concept is beautifully simple: race a red radio-controlled car against three other opponents (yellow, green, and blue) across multiple intense, winding tracks. Accelerate with ‘B’, steer with left and right, shoot weapons with ‘A.’
That’s right, weapons. On the track, you can collect missiles and mines to halt your opponents’ uncanny driving abilities. These weapons are Godsends, and you should use them liberally. Strangely, your opponents can’t fire back at you, but that’s ok, their driving skills are good enough already.
The tracks are fraught with both pleasure and peril. “Roll cages” a.k.a. invincibility will temporarily halt an opponent if they touch you (or you, them). Oil slicks spin you out, puddles and pop-up barriers slow you down, and zippers give you a speed boost. Bonus letters that spell N-I-N-T-E-N-D-O can also be found, one letter per track. Collect them all and you’ll get a full-on RC car upgrade! Finish the race between first and third place and you can progress to the next race. Place in fourth and it’s game over for you.
Your computer-controlled opponents are devious, but thankfully, not invincible. To me, they strike the right balance of challenging without being unfair. They know the layouts of each track very well, so they take tight corners and turns easily while also hitting all the zippers. Despite their formidable prowess, they also hit puddles and oil slicks at times, crashing and slowing themselves down. Launching missiles and mines is certainly an advantage against them, but launch too many and the yellow car will accelerate to 127 mph. You won’t be able to catch him, so the highest rank you’ll achieve on that specific race is second.
On R.C. Pro-Am’s cover, you’ll notice the claim “32 Tracks of Racing Thrills!” This isn’t entirely accurate. There are 24 different track layouts in the game, with each track after 24 repeating with slight variations. According to Wikipedia, once you hit Track 32, all your opponents drive at max speed and you won’t be able to catch them without weapons. After Track 32, weapons no longer appear, so you’ll have to rely on your cache from previous tracks. Once they run out, you won’t be able to catch the other racers, and you’ll inevitably place fourth. Take your RC car and go home.
With its surprising sense of speed, balanced difficulty, and addictive gameplay, R.C. Pro-Am isn’t just the first NES racing game, but perhaps its best. Careening around a corner without going off the edge, cutting off the other drivers, laying a mine right in front of the unsuspecting green car, making a surprise comeback from last to first. Nearly forty years later, R.C. Pro-Am is filled with little joys and unexpected delights.
With each race you win, you also amass trophies, gold, silver, or bronze depending on your placement. Can you collect all the gold trophies? Only if you’re the best. Charge up your car and get out there, soldier. Your radio-controlled legacy awaits.
ALSO AVAILABLE ON:
Good news, everyone! R.C. Pro-Am is available to play “for free” via the NES app on Nintendo Switch Online. I recommend everyone give it a go.
You can also buy the original NES cartridge, check out the Genesis version which has some slightly different features, or if you still have an Xbox, play the game on Rare Replay.
T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage
PUBLISHER: Rare
DEVELOPER: Either Atlus or SIMS, depending on the source
RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1988 (US)
Joe Cool. Tiki Man. Thrilla Gorilla. Kool Kat.
No, these aren’t the names of long-forgotten Hanna Barbera characters. Nor are they axed cigarette spokesmen designed to lure children into smoking. These are “Da Boys,” the once-mascots of Town and Country Surf Designs, come to goofy, glorious, pixelated life in T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage.
To the best of my knowledge, T&C Surf Designs is the first and only surfing/skating game based around a surfboard design shop - not counting the pseudo-sequel, Thrilla’s Surfari, of course. We’ll get to that in 1992.
T&C Surf Designs is also the first NES game to feature surfing or skateboarding as part of its gameplay. While other skating games like 720˚ and Skate or Die would soon be ported to the NES, the 8-bit surfing genre would have to suffice with this game and the “Surfing” portion in California Games.
“Big Wave Encounter” has you as either Kool Kat (human-sized cat in a business suit, perfect) or Thrilla Gorilla (bro gorilla with epic shades and bandanna, also good) riding some massive waves, collecting points, and trying to stay on your board without crashing and burning. The latter is incredibly difficult, but practice makes perfect or at least slightly less terrible. Once you reach the pier, you get some more points for lives not lost, then you’re back on the waves again, collecting more points and radiating all the brah energy to our sister ocean. Do this as many times as you want, each round is exactly the same, or at least I think it is. I couldn’t keep Kool Kat planted on the board to save his life.
“Street Skate Session” is a sweet skateboard ride through a confusing city street, complete with random obstacles like turtles, floating baseballs, torn up sections of road, and what appears to be stacks of books. Speed up, slow down, jump over the debris, and once again, rack up as many points as seems necessary. Each round is mostly the same, although every third round or so adds some extra street portions.
If you want to alternate between skating and surfing levels, “Wood & Water Rage” has you covered. Just don’t expect any new content in this section.
T&C Surf Designs was a perfectly acceptable game of its kind in early 1988. It controls decent enough, the mascots are endearing, and the game’s lone musical theme is a banger that sounds like a lost Mega Man track. Its lack of content might feel particularly egregious today, but this simple arcade design is just how a lot of developers made games back in the late 80s. Lengthier titles like Metroid or Legend of Zelda were outliers, not the norm. This would soon change as the NES soldiered on into the ‘90s, but for early 1988, one skateboarding track and one surfboarding session, slightly lengthened and repeated into oblivion, were more than enough.
ALSO AVAILABLE ON:
Likely due to licensing issues and perhaps the fact that few would want to play this game in 2025, T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage remains stuck on the NES. Should you have a working NES and you’re feelin’ frisky, the cartridge goes for around $7 on eBay.
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RC Pro Am is one of the games I got with my first NES. For whatever reason it never clicked with me that the cars in the game are little radio controlled ones. Probably because there aren’t any objects around the track that really gave a sense of scale.
There’s something distinctly late 80s/early 90s in a brand that features a gorilla and cat that skateboard and surf. T&C is one of those games I heard of back in the day but never gave much thought to.. I’m not sure I remember seeing the clothing brand either.
This is my first time seeing RC Pro and I'm really impressed by the graphics, looks fun too. Your posts always end up steering me towards more NES hidden gems.