Trials, Paperboy, Excite Bike, Super Hang On, No Second Prize, Manx TT Super bike, Radikal Bikers, Bikes Of TRON…
The recent situation is like jets where the more arcady takes mostly only exist in open world and mass multiplayer games.
Road cycling is a rich persons sport, gaming is circuses for us poors.
No one wants to play ‘tour de riche’
A /decent/ Downhill game could be good (Descenders wasn’t it., super wide mariokart-esque tracks - give me some goat tracks that need berms on the corners)
Road cycling is a rich persons sport, gaming is circuses for us poors.
I can’t fully deny that, but I’d say you can get into road cycling for about the same cost as AAA PC gaming.
How has no one mentioned Happy Wheels yet?
Also, Riders Republic is a thing that people slept on.
Riders Republic wasn’t for me, primarily due to the controls. Having just come from Descenders, the control philosophy felt so vastly different that I couldn’t adjust. It never stopped feeling like a struggle, which was a shame.
Well, bikes are usually a lot slower…
There is Paperboy for the NES. I have that game amd it still very playable. But they are right not many of those types of games.
Ctrl+F for “Descenders” came up empty. I think that’s the author’s issue.
Just tried this out recently. It’s good fun. I do wish it explained itself a little better at the start - I had no idea that it was essentially a roguelite for about the first hour I played - but it gets that feeling of momentum at the edge of wiping out just right
The excitement of F1 racing is unattainable to most people, which is why it makes sense as a game, but bikes are pretty tame. However, one thing that makes bikes interesting is their smallness, ease and simplicity. The Yakuza series has started picking up on giving protagonists such small vehicles, including a skateboard and a segway, and they make much more sense within those worlds than full vehicles.
I feel like this could be envisioned as part of a larger open-world game, not as the vehicle itself as a means to fun. Something like: You have an open world game, and it has cars, and they are faster than your bike. But they are far more nimble, can go in tighter areas, and can be stored in larger vehicles used to get around. So, something like picking the Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2, they’re a tool that’s fantastic for making use of the environment for better results, but not a “first-order strategy for movement”. This is even sometimes how they work out in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Yeah bikes were really useless in GTA V because even the narrowest alleyway could be driven down. Hopefully they have some narrow alleyways that you might be able to skip down to avoid the police.
Excitebike, too! The built-in level editor was really amazing.
I was so excited when this came out on Wii! I need to set my Wii up again play it more.
I never had an NES as a kid, but my best friend did, and we spent hours playing excite bike. It was such a great game.
Now that is a name I have not heard in a long time.
I saw something within the past year or so that looked like a new version of Paperboy and I got excited but then it turned out it wasn’t and I was disappointed.
I was cleaning out my garage a few weeks ago and came across my old Commodore 64 Paperboy floppy.
We have Road Rash. What more could you want?
Anyone else thought the title was referencing to the book of George Orwell, Animal Farm?
“Four legs good, two legs bad” - Snowball, Animal Farm.
Uhhhh Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX is/was a thing you know?
Don’t forget BMX XXX!
Downhill Domination
that soundtrack slaaaaaaappped
came here to say just this
look i’m not a ICE apologist or antyhing (these apply to EVs as well) but it’s not hard to figure out why car games are more popular. Also I’m not saying these are universal rules, i’m sure some disagree. But I think it’s safe to say these apply to most in the gamer market.
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more power and speed = more fun.
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Games are as close as most people will come to driving an expensive car like a BMW, let alone a Ferrari, or even actual racing cars.
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Even if you argue people are just not culturally conditioned to aesthetically enjoy bicycles, could you even really appreciate them in the same way in a video game? you’d barely see them.
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Cars are much more complex machines and that leads to each having a more unique character than bicycles, and that allows a greater variety of gameplay. For example, mid/front engine, ICE/EV, NA/turbo/super, FWD/RWD/AWD, etc. And usually in games there’s a progression from lower performance cars to higher performance cars.
I don’t know, bikes are incredibly diverse vehicles too. A tricycle is nothing like a cargo bike, a full suspension mountain bike, a road bike, a time trial bike, a BMX, a fixed gear etc. and they all feel very different to ride.
And while there might not be as many moving parts as on a car, a lot of engineering goes into the design of high end bicycles. If you’re into bikes, it’s very easy to appreciate the beauty and functional design of a well designed bicycle.
The fact that they are at their core simple machines which basic function hasn’t changed since the invention of the safety bicycle in the 1880s, yet have been innovated on ever since to arrive at the bikes we have today is what makes them fascinating imo.
Some people enjoy cars and some people enjoy bikes, but there isn’t really anything that makes one more inherently interesting.
Instead of leveling up your vehicle, you level up the infrastructure as you progress the game. By the end, you’re just taking the public transit system to the finish line.
Doesn’t this touch on the premise of Death Stranding?
There’s the kernel of a pretty good 3 minute YouTube skit in here.
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Trials Evolution would like a word
I think there is an upcoming one, but I forget the name. It looked like Pacific Drive with a bike.
Road Redemption (motorcycle combat game)
7 Days to Die (zombie scavenging survival craft with mostly 2-wheeled vehicles)
Don’t forget Days Gone. Purely a motorcycle during a zombie apocalypse. Sooooo damn good!
beat me to it. That one was a lot of fun. It’s almost halloween, I should play it again.
Zwift is very popular. But you have to do the cycling yourself
Just looked at their website. Is this “game” solely populated by rich people?
I mean you could say the same about any current AAA game. A Zwift setup including the bike, trainer and device to run it on can easily be cheaper than a modern gaming rig.
Sure, but a modern gaming rig can play more than one thing. I get that it’s an enthusiast thing, and it’s pretty cool, but you REALLY need to know that’s what you wanna do/play at those prices.
Technically you can “play” other things too (there are competitors that offer the similar experiences), including GTA. But nobody is Zwifting for the gameplay anyway. It’s not really a game and just something to make indoor cycling in the off season a little bit less dull. Personally I don’t think it’s worth the subscription and would rather just watch a movie.
All competitive cycling is
I’ll give you that.
