Pixel Perfect Memories: World Class Track Meet

The Top 100 NES Countdown will be over before the next PPM column.  Today's game at #22 is R.C. Pro-Am.

Release Date: September, 1987
Platform: NES
Developer: TRY

I think my parents fell for the marketing ploy that the power pad would give us a reason to exercise while playing the Nintendo.  We got one game for the terribly expensive pad, and that was World Class Track Meet.  It's not a terribly good game, and it did not make my list of best one-hundred NES games.  But we played it quite a bit, especially when we wanted to get our "exercise" in without going outside.

The game has several track events which start off fairly easy and get increasingly difficult as you face tougher opponents.  The idea is that you basically run on the pad, and jump if the game calls for it (e.g. with the long jump or triple jump).  It didn't take us very long that there were ways to easily cheat the game.  One could jump off the pad, then jump back on after insanely long jumps.  And getting on your knees and hitting the pad with your hands could speed things up.  Of course, if the game were awesome in its own right, finding ways to cheat it wouldn't have been at the forefront.  But the game is so limited, as are the uses for the power pad, that there's little reason to use it for exercise or any other reason.

I still haven't played any new games of note recently.  What's keeping you busy this past month or so?

 

25 thoughts on “Pixel Perfect Memories: World Class Track Meet”

  1. I had been playing NBA2K13, but I'm finding that I'm having a much harder time getting decent at it than I did with 2K11. It almost seems like they tried to make it all a little too realistic to the point where passing is extremely difficult.

    But that's all on the backburner for now because my wife got me Borderlands 2 for my upcoming birthday. It came in the mail yesterday and my wife decided it didn't matter if it got wrapped up, so I opened the box and gave it a go. I think I'll be spending a good deal of time with this one. Just playing it for an hour last night brought back memories/nightmares of Diablo 2 looting addiction. I can't wait.

  2. That game was really easy to cheat, but my brother and I played it a lot regardless (or perhaps because of that fact).

    How many more games came out for that mat? I can recall...none. I'm sure there had to be others, right?

    Playstation Plus just came out for the Vita, so I got six free games there, and they've been so generous with the PS3 stuff my backlog is worse than ever. I did play Papo & Yo a couple of weeks ago, a bizarre, unforgettable game that's an allegory for child abuse. It's very short, but doesn't need to be any longer than it is.

    I also got LittleBigPlanet Karting for my daughters (half off on Black Friday, which is the most I've paid for a game in a long time) for Christmas. It's tough to wait to give it to them, because I'm almost as interested in it as they are.

    1. Athletic World, Dance Aerobics, Street Cop, Super Team Games, and Short Order/Eggsplode! were released for the pad. I know of nobody who's played them.

  3. I've been putting most of my time into another run through of Skyrim. I'll need to go back to Borderlands 2 and play the DLC soon.

  4. It's been lots of Civ V for me lately. That game has tremendous replay value for me with the different civilizations.

    I also started in on Lego Batman for the Wii. I've played some Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones in the past. Those were fun. Batman is a huge disappointment.

  5. I got a Wii U on launch day and I've mostly been playing that. I got several games with it, but haven't had time to play them all. Most of the time I've put into New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendoland. I mainly bought the console for NSMB U, and what I've got to play of it so far has been great. I know many people think the NSMB series is stale, and I sort of understand. The rendered assets are pretty bland, the games are often a cakewalk until the last few worlds, and they've been largely using the same music for the entire series which is a huge bummer. Plus, NSMB 2 just came out on the 3DS and was good, but certainly underwhelming compared to the excellent NSMB Wii. NSMB U is much more challenging in the early going than the other games. The graphics are gorgeous, and the new Baby Yoshi powerups are fun. It's very Super Mario World inspired, and I am definitely okay with that. I'm looking forward to sinking some more time into it now that things have calmed down here, and I'm definitely excited to play the challenge mode which I've heard is tough as nails.

    I haven't yet got to play any of the single player events on Nintendoland, but J & I played a few of the events with some friends over Thanksgiving. The Luigi's Mansion themed event was pretty fun, although the pace was very slow. It's very similar to how Pac Man Vs. played. We ended up playing "Mario Chase" after that which was even more fun. The player on the pad was Mario and he could see the whole map and where the four players were. The four players were on split screen on the TV and they can only see ahead of themselves. The goal is to catch him within 2:30. This was a blast, and I wish there were more than three maps.

    Once we tired of that we played "Pikmin Adventure" which was the star of the game. The player on the pad was Olimar, and the players with remotes were Pikmin. For the Pikmin players, it was kind of like playing Diablo or Gauntlet; you attacked enemies, got loot, and leveled up. For Olimar, it was a bit more like the actual Pikmin games. He could control his own set of Pikmin, as well as summon the four players and carry/throw them as he pleased. It was simple but incredibly addicting. We played for hours and it's the most fun I've had playing a game in local multiplayer since Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

    I also picked up Zombi U, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, and Scribblenauts Unlimited with the system. Zombi U is tough as nails, and I look forward to playing more of it. The game got very mixed press, but I'm glad I picked it up. I think people expected something like Left 4 Dead, but Zombi U is more like a Dark Souls-inspired first person survival horror game. If you don't play it like that you will get destroyed. Sonic is pretty fun, but I only played a few races. It's a pretty great nostalgia trip with all the wonderful characters from Dreamcast games. Scribblenauts remains unplayed, but I hope to rectify that soon.

    So far I've really enjoyed my time with the system. There's some interesting stuff on the horizon that I am excited about. And I really can't wait for the next big wave of fall games Nintendo shows for it.

    Other than this, the only other thing I've really been playing regularly is Super Hexagon on my phone. I can't remember if I've discussed this or not, but if you have an iOS device and like challenging games you owe it to yourself to buy it. I'm a bit sad there isn't an in-game timer, but I'd certainly be depressed with the number of hours I've put into the game given that one round lasts between 2 and about 90 seconds. But it's incredibly, incredibly good. Maybe the best game I've played this year. Maybe the best game I've played in several years. It's just so pure and addicting.

      1. So I just wrote a really long response to this and when I went to post it I got a "you need to be logged in to post" message, and it was all lost. Sigh. But here are some bullet points on what I think. I'll be happy to expand on anything.

        - There is a huge update required when you first boot the system, but once that's done updates are handled extremely well.
        - The OS is hit and miss. It's somewhat slow and clunky, but it has a lot of cool features. I assume it'll get better with time, it's a decent start. Miiverse is fantastic.
        - The pad is extremely comfortable and streaming games directly to it is awesome. Having a built in TV/Satellite remote is really cool.
        - The eShop is off to a pretty good start.
        - It actually comes with HD cables in the box, so you don't need to buy a lot of extra stuff.
        - Your Wii remotes, nunchucks, and Classic Controllers all work. It's better to have Wii remotes with Motion Plus.
        - You can expand the memory easily with pretty much any USB hard drive.
        - The Deluxe bundle is a far better value, but the glossy black controller picks up fingerprints like woah.
        - Seeing Nintendo games in HD is awesome. A lot of the third party ports are half assed.
        - The system isn't a huge leap beyond the 360 or PS3, but with the uniqueness of the controller, I hope that devs make exclusive software for it.

        I'm happy with my purchase thusfar.

        1. I went to post it I got a "you need to be logged in to post" message, and it was all lost.
          If you go back, browsers generally keep what you filled out in forms and you can/could recover it.

          1. Yeah, in this case I did that and the LTE box was hidden with the "you must logged in..." displayed. I was hoping I could get it back that way.

  6. I'm playing Assassin's Creed 2. I was lukewarm (to put it kindly) on the first game, but I adore this one. I'm not entirely sure of why that is. They've weeded out the "gain information" phase of the assassinations, choosing instead to give you distinct missions leading up to the big moments. That really helps with the overall narrative, as well as lowering the repetition that made the first so annoying. Also, Ezio is a thousand times more likeable as a protagonist than Altair was. They've made the retrieval quests a lot more enjoyable, too. Instead of "go random places and find flags" it's "go into a huge tomb and show off your free running skills and we'll reward you with kickass armor". So yeah, I guess I do know why that I like it so much more.

    I'm still playing Final Fantasy V. I had to take a break for a bit, though. The leadup to what I assume is the showdown with Exdeath is kind of slow, and since my easy, cheap way of healing myself (Healing Staff, ftw) disappeared with Lenna, I'm having to actually use mana to heal. That sucks.

    I think I'm going to play through Descent again once those two are beat. It's been a year or two.

    1. When I think back on the first Assassin's Creed, I feel like we were fortunate that a second one even got made at all. There isn't a whole lot of redeeming value after a few hours of gameplay due to that repitition and the voice acting was so terrible it was difficult to care much about any character or the story. I'm assuming someones got fired and replaced with people who know what they're doing since all those things are made infinitely better in 2.

      1. I remember the first being a big deal when it came out. Don't know if it sold well, or just got super-hyped.

        Free running was awesome, but it's one of the few games that I pretty much had to force myself to finish (mostly because I heard the second was so much better). I was having practically no fun by the end of the game.

        And yes, the voice acting, which was terrible in the first game has been turned into a strength for the second game. It's an impressive recovery.

        1. You're tougher than I am. I just watched a video of the last fight to see what happened before I started playing the second one.

          1. Ugh. I should've done that.

            Imagine that meeting.

            "Okay, so what's the best part about this game?"
            "Well, the free-running is cool. Oh! The assassinations are awesome, too."
            "How should we end this game?"
            "Obviously we should just have our protagonist fighting his way slowly and painfully through crowds of faceless combatants using the faulty, unenjoyable combat engine. Make sure "
            "Go to payroll, give yourself a raise."

            1. This is something I've noticed a TON with recent games: terrible, terrible endgames. The ending of Uncharted was a freaking QTE sequence, and Uncharted 2 had a terrible fight with a bullet sponge. Lost Planet totally changed the mechanics (for the worse). Gears of War 2 had some awful on rails shooting sequence. The final fight against the Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum nearly ruined the entire game for me. The fight against 100 Kratoses is one of the many reasons I haven't played any of the later God of War games exctensively. Good lord. I don't understand why they do this.

              Not all of them are like this of course. New Super Mario Bros. Wii had an incredible final stage. The second loop in Punch-Out!! is brilliant (and balls hard). Dead Rising stayed true to its mechanics throughout the game. But these types of things are the exception, not the rule.

              1. It actually makes a lot of sense. A great majority of people who play never make it to the end game, so the developers don't devote the resources to make it better. Sucks for the people who actually do finish.

              2. I loved the final fight in Uncharted 2, actually. I thought it was exciting as hell.

                In general, though, the change of mechanics in the end of games is...weird. It is rare that a game stays true to itself in the end.

                The Ratchet and Clank games are good that at. Platformers are good at that in general. And yeah, the final level of NSMB was pure awesomeness.

                1. I was just annoyed that it wasn't quite like the other firefights in the game. That being said, it didn't hamper my enjoyment too much. It's definitely one of my three or four favorite games from this generation.

  7. I remember seeing commercials for this track game and came with the pad, and I wanted a Nintendo real bad (my neighbor/best friend had a NES and would go over to his house and play) but my parents never bought me one.

    I should probably go out and buy 2K13 so I have a good Timberwolves roster, but I bought 2K12 last year (oh man, OKC kicks my butt every time because Kevin Durant cant miss.)

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