 groan vestu junk One significant way the Super Nintendo improved on the NES was how licensed games were treated. Many people have a bad association with licensed games back in the 80s just look at NES games like X-Men � Back to the Future � even stuff like Where's Waldo heck he could go all the way back to ET on the Atari 2600 the Super Nintendo wasn�t necessarily void of bad licensed games but if your game was being made by Konami then you were in good hands They made stuff like The Tiny Toon Adventures games, Batman Returns, Adventures of Batman and Robin, Turtles in Time, and Biker Mice from Mars. This game was based on the Saturday morning cartoon of the same name back when you could just throw random stuff together and bam, you got a TV show. Trucker Geese from Tallahassee, sure. Unicycle Urchins from Utica, even better. Jon Stossel Apostles with Colossal Fossils? Okay, maybe not. The point is, Biker Mice from Mars sounds made up, but it was indeed a real show. And it was a pretty decent one too. There's three anthropomorphic mice who drive motorcycles. Their home plan out of Mars had been conquered by the Plutarchians, so now they've tasked themselves to defend Earth from a similar invasion. We've got Plutarchians disguised as humans hatching evil schemes, we've got bionic arms and lasers, bumbling bad guys named Grease Pit and Fred. It's a good time. Rather than make a typical side-scrolling action platformer or a beat-em-up, Konami opted for a multiplayer combat racing game. Well, they are Biker Mice after all. There's six playable racers here, a mix of the three Biker Mice, Throttle, Moto and Vinny, along with three villains, Dr. Carbuncle, Grease Pit, and the evil Lawrence Limburger. There's two game modes, one's a regular race circuit where you race five laps to the finish, the other is a battle mode where you just try and survive to the end. And what's cool is that both modes support two players, and both modes reward you after each race with money. So you can buy better weapons, better engines, better armor, and better grip or tire strength, so to speak. Another difference I should point out between the two game modes is that in battle mode you have to finish in the top three to advance, whereas in the main race circuit you have to finish in the top three in points after six races. Take three hits in the main circuit mode and you just kind of sit there pondering your fate before you resume the race. Take three hits in battle mode and you're done. After each lap you get two things, a random item you use with the A button and another item specific to your character that can be used with the Y button. For instance, Vinny gets three jumps, Dr. Carbuncle gets eight projectiles, and so on. The special item you get is randomized Mario Kart style and it can be anything from extra money to a speed boost, invincibility, a timer that temporarily stops all other racers, or a projectile that makes other racers go boom. You can also set traps like stuff that temporarily turns a racer into whatever this thing is. You can also use the L and R buttons to sideswipe other racers, and hold down on the D pad to pop a wheelie. Now as you can see, this game has an isometric viewpoint, and while this game may look kinda goofy to play, the controls are spot on, similar to another isometric combat racing game, Rock and Roll Racing. I think I like Biker Mice from Mars better though, because each racer has their own distinct feel to them, if that makes sense, and plus each racer also has a special ability. For instance, if you pick Vinny, you can do what the game calls a tornado twirl when you press the L or R buttons while pressing left or right on the D pad. This helps with sharp turns, however you really have to get the timing right or you might flail out of control. Conversely, Limburger's special ability is a boost of speed you get by tapping the shoulder buttons on a turn. Again, the timing is tough to get down, but yeah, every racer has their own special ability, usually related to turning, which is really cool, it kinda feels like a reward for learning the feel of the controls for a particular racer. Having said that, this game can be tough for newcomers if you pick the wrong guy. I would suggest staying away from the three villains if this is your first time playing, they're just too finicky and tough to keep under control. I would start with either Throttle or Modo, they're probably the most balanced, and if you're feeling ambitious, try out Vinny, he's got the best turning grip and one of the best acceleration ratings, but his top speed sucks. The thing is though, if you're able to place high in the first few races you can upgrade Vinny's engine right away, and his top speed gets better and better. Keep getting engine upgrades and before you know it, Vinny is winning every single race for you no problem. It's little points of strategy like that that helps separate Biker Mice from Mars from other racing games of its time. There's all sorts of small things in this game that add up to what makes for a surprisingly nuanced racer. To give another example, on jumps you can press up while you're in the air and press down on a downslope when you land, just like an Excitebike, to give yourself just a tiny bit of extra speed. You can also take advantage of this game's oddball viewpoint by placing mines in areas the other player can't see. That's always fun. And of course there's also the matter of learning the tracks themselves. There's 25 of them in this game, and there's all sorts of hazards you gotta deal with like fire shooting out of the ground, deep water you can fall into, and fans that will try and blow you off the track. There's some interesting trivia associated with this title as well, like the fact that this game was never released in Japan. I guess motorcycle driving rodents just weren't their thing. This game did get a PAL region release, but what's funny is that it got all sorts of Snickers product placement all over the place. Hey, it wouldn't be proper racing without sponsors everywhere. Anyway, yeah, on the surface Biker Mice from Mars is a solid game. You race and make stuff go boom, but what I really appreciate in this one is the level of detail beneath the surface. Each of the six racers are unique and take some time to learn the best way to use each one. It's a bit of a surprise for me. I did touch on this game on an earlier video, but I only talked about it for like a minute, and when I revisited this game, I was surprised to see the amount of depth that's here. Also, I should probably mention that this game also looks and sounds fantastic. I mean, the music here is top notch. Biker Mice from Mars is a surprisingly deep combat racing game, and it's easily one of the very best multiplayer games on the Super Nintendo. All right, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.