Game Boy #012 – Motocross Maniacs

Developer(s): Konami
Publisher: Ultra Games
Released: 1990
Region: USA
Win Condition: Qualify in all eight tracks in any difficulty

Yet another childhood Game Boy game revisited. I played this one a lot as a kid, certain there were tons of secrets to find. Like what’s with those little bikes that follow you around sometimes after you’ve done a flip jump? And where can you go if you’ve got the Jet upgrade and enough nitro to take you there?

This is a 2D time trial racing game, not dissimilar to Excitebike, but without the multiple lanes, and with the addition of power-ups and a ton of verticality and loop-de-loops. In each of the game’s eight tracks, you start with four nitro boosts to get you through two laps before time runs out. Along the way, you can pick up more nitro, a speed upgrade, time extensions, better tire traction, a jet boost that lets you nitro while airborne, and the aforementioned mysterious little guys that trail behind you and don’t really seem to do anything but look cool.

The nitro pick-ups and the time extensions are vital. There are tons of areas that are unreachable without a nitro boost, though most of the time you can still fall to the ground and proceed that way, but with so many sand traps to slow you down you’re probably gonna burn too much time to qualify. The different difficulty levels only serve to shorten the amount of time you have to get through, and that’s when the time pick-ups are most important. If you haven’t mentally mapped out where they all are you’ve got no chance of success.

For me, this is a game I played inside and out back in the day, so for this revisit, I was content with getting an Any % clear on the standard A difficulty. I still struggled a bit starting around track 4 until I discovered (remembered?) holding up on the d-pad somehow granted you a little extra air off a jump, which was really important for hitting some of the ramps and loops. Guess I should’ve read the manual first!