Super Night Riders

Another one that was part of my quest to clear easy completions from my list, Super Night Riders is… an Arcade Racing Game!

There isn’t really a premise, you just select a course and it’s a checkpoint race against the clock to get to the end. You have to go around other slow-moving bikes along the way, and this is main challenge. If you hit another bike, you will most likely fail the stage. I did feel at times, the game was a little harsh with the judgement of whether or not I actually hit a bike but this may have been my frustration boiling over.

Graphically, it’s very simple, blocky classic arcade style, the type of graphics you would expect from one of those coin-op machines where you have to get on a pretend bike and race that way – I know they had names but I can’t for the life me remember what they were called.

Musically there is a limited soundtrack of some very Japanese sounding rock pop – just music, no words, which to be honest probably makes it easier to concentrate on not making mistakes when racing.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 20 Achievements

The game can be completed in just over two hours if you flawlessly do everything. There are 13 different races to do and each carries an achievement. There’s also a double achievement for clearing your first stage. Outside of completing the races, there a few other things that need to be done.

Firstly, when doing the races, selecting a different song each time will get you an achievement for listening to all the music. There are also some little achievements for passing a bike quite close but not crashing (pretty sure I clipped the bike when I got this), trying again after a game over, and then another for passing the course after you fail. The last one, which I struggled with, was for getting 75,000 points in 1 second. To do this, you have to knock off another biker by clipping the front of their bike when you pass them. It’s really fussy over the right way to do that and what constitutes a correct hit so it takes a few tries.

Out of the all the achievements, the hardest one is for clearing Courses 1 to 6 in one run. This essentially boils down to 16 minutes of concentration, throttle control and sweating. I think it took me three or four legitimate attempts which suggests that I am being a little unfair by saying the game was unforgiving when it’s judged me to have hit the AI bikes. It’s certainly a tough and rewarding challenge though.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Super Night Riders is short and partly challenging completion. The game is currently retailing at £6.39 which is okay value for money. Not the best. The game doesn’t offer much replay value either. Once you’ve completed all courses, there’s nothing else to do.