is a maze chase

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arca ...

released by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

in 1981. It is a lightly tweaked version of 1980's ''

Rally-X is a maze chase arcade video game developed Namco and released in 1980. Players drive a blue Formula One race car through a multidirectional scrolling maze to collect yellow flags. Boulders block some paths and must be avoided. Red enemy cars ...

'', with slightly enhanced graphics, easier gameplay, a new soundtrack, and a "Lucky Flag" that gives the player extra points for remaining fuel when collected. ''New Rally-X'' was manufactured in greater numbers and was much more popular in Japan than its predecessor. While the original ''Rally-X'', released under a

Midway Games Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'' ...

license, was a moderate hit in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Midway only distributed ''New Rally-X'' as an upgrade kit for ''Rally-X'' cabinets.

Gameplay

The player controls a blue racing car. The objective is to collect ten yellow flags from the maze before fuel bar runs out. Each round has eight common flags, one "special" flag and one "lucky" flag. The special flag doubles the score of any flags collected afterward until the level ends. The lucky flag, which was not present in the original game, gives bonus points based on how much fuel the player has. Enemy red cars attempt to ram the player's vehicle, causing one life to be lost. A button releases a smoke screen, at the cost of fuel, making the red cars unable to move for a short time if they run over the smoke screens. Boulders in the maze are deadly if collided with. The third level and every fourth after that is a bonus round, labelled "Challenging Stage", where red cars remain still.

Legacy

A version of ''New Rally-X'' is the load-up game in the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

game ''

Ridge Racer is a racing game, racing video game series developed and published for arcade systems and home game consoles by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. The first game, ''Ridge Racer (1993 video game), Ridge Racer'' (1993), was originally rel ...

''. It was also included in ''

Namco Museum Battle Collection ''Namco Museum Battle Collection'' is a 2005 video game compilation developed by Tose and published by Namco for the PlayStation Portable. It includes 21 games - four of these are brand-new "arrangement" remakes of older Namco games, while the re ...

'' for the PSP, along with an entirely new "Arrangement" version of it which has updated graphics, music, and new gameplay mechanics. The game was also released on the

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Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

Live Arcade service on December 27, 2006, and on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Unix ...

in Japan on October 6, 2009. In addition, it has also been included in several editions of the Namco plug-n-play game series, from

Jakks Pacific Jakks Pacific, Inc. is an American company that designs and markets toys and consumer products, with a range of products that feature numerous children's toy licenses. The company is named after its founder, Jack Friedman, who had previously fou ...

. A version known as ''New Rally-X S'' (the "S" stands for "Special") was also released on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. In November 2010, it was included in ''

Namco Museum Megamix was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiung, ...

'' for the

. The game was included on the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

and

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

as part of the ''

Arcade Archives is a series of emulated arcade games from the late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch, published by Hamster Corporation. A sub-series called is focused on rereleasing Neo Geo ...

'' series in February 2022.

References

External links

* {{KLOV game, 8855 1981 video games Arcade video games Maze games Mobile games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Namco arcade games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Hamster Corporation games ja:ニューラリーX