11. Chiki Chiki Machine Mou Race (Wacky Races) (Famicom, Atlus, 1991)

Chiki Chiki Machine Mou Race (aka Wacky Races on the NES) is a platformer starring Muttley the dog from the 1960s animated tv show Wacky Races. Wacky Races has actually been spun off into 4 other (all racing-type) video games since this one, which is strange for a series that had not seen any new episodes for 30+ years at the time (the show was eventually rebooted in 2017, though no video games were released). One of the games was only released Europe, so maybe it's more of a cultural institution over there?

This was a platformer relased the year after the Super Famicom was released, and it bears a lot of hallmarks of a Famicom platformer made around this time:

- Generally not super difficult
- Controls basically like Mega Man
- Probably one interesting mechanic

Atlus' own NY Nyankies (aka Rockin' Kats) also occupies this space, along with super valuable NES games like Little Samson, Panic Restaurant, The Krion Conquest, and others.

I do feel that Wacky Races is a bit less all together than these other titles I've listed, mainly that its main mechanic is not terribly interesting. It involves collecting bones that are scattered liberally throughout the levels. You have a series of 4 abilities (2 attacks, a small hover and health upgrade), and each bone you collect moves a cursor one ability slot over. After 4 bones, you can refill/upgrade your health, and bones are so plentiful that there is not much risk of dying. At the end of each stage you fight a boss, but there is always a single bone in the boss level, so as long as you have full health entering the boss, you can also guarantee a second full health bar, making bosses trivial.

I did have a good amount of fun once I decided I could basically speedrun the game while not dying, I even managed to take damage to get behind a boss (to my advantage), which made me feel real smart.

4/5, One of the good Famicom/NES platformers, but not one of the best.