Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

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Road Runner's Death Valley Rally
Road Runner's Death Valley Rally Coverart.png
North American box art
Developer(s) ICOM Simulations
Publisher(s) Sunsoft
Producer(s) David Marsh
Programmer(s) Mike Garber
Artist(s) Jeff Troutman
Brian Babendererde
Composer(s) Nu Romantic Productions
Platform(s) Super NES
Release
  • NA: November 1992
  • JP: December 22, 1992
  • EU: September 30, 1993
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single-player

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally (known in Japan as Looney Tunes: Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote and in Europe as Looney Tunes: Road Runner)[ citation needed ] is a 1992 video game developed by ICOM Simulations and published by Sunsoft for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is based on the Looney Tunes characters Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. [1]

Contents

Gameplay

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally features side-scrolling platform gameplay. [1] The player controls Road Runner, who must avoid being eaten by Wile E. Coyote. [1] The game consists of five different environments, with each one containing three levels and a boss battle. [1] Coyote has a unique method of ambush for every level, ranging from the Acme Batman outfit to explosives, and for every level there is a cutscene of the contraption failing once the player crosses the finish mark.[ citation needed ] After every three levels, Road Runner battles against one of Wile E. Coyote's super weapons in a boss fight. [2]

Road Runner has a series of control movements useful to beating the game, including jumping and running. Road Runner can also peck his beak to kill enemies, and can eat bird seeds that give him a burst of turbo speed, allowing him to scale walls. However, turbo speed can only be used a limited number of times, as it depletes the bird seeds; additional turbo speed is gained by consuming more bird seeds. [2] The boost also acts as an invincibility, being able to destroy enemies and resist damage from Coyote.[ citation needed ] The player can also make Road Runner say "meep-meep!" [2] and make him stick out his tongue, although neither serves a gameplay function.

Reception

Jonathan Davies of Super Play magazine gave the game a 42 percent rating and criticized it for its difficult gameplay, bad collision detection, and lack of a password feature, and wrote that the game is composed of "some absolutely fabulous animated sequences (they really are wonderful) linked by some truly appalling platform levels." [2] Road Runner's Death Valley Rally has an aggregate score of 65.67% based on three reviews on GameRankings. [3]

Entertainment Weekly wrote that "You, as the Road Runner, must escape the clutches of Wile E. Coyote, whose ACME-brand costumes and contraptions have been lovingly reproduced in detail from actual 1950s cartoons." [4] Nintendo Power ranked the game 10# in their Top SNES Games of 1992 writing: "The feeling of the classic cartoon is captured through great character animations, sampled sounds and hilarious defeat scenes for Wile E. Coyote." [5]

Cancelled sequel

A sequel, titled Wile E's Revenge, was in development by Software Creations and was planned as a follow-up to Death Valley Ralley. Unlike the first game, the sequel would allow the user to control Wile E. Coyote as he chases the Road Runner. The game was cancelled because of Sunsoft's bankruptcy in 1995. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon characters

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical short Fast and Furry-ous. In each episode, the cunning, devious and constantly hungry coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and eat the roadrunner, but is humorously unsuccessful. Instead of using animal instinct, the coyote deploys absurdly complex contraptions to try to catch his prey. They comically backfire, with the coyote often getting injured in slapstick fashion. Many of the items for these contrivances are mail-ordered from a variety of companies implied to be part of the Acme Corporation. TV Guide included Wile E. Coyote in its 2013 list of "The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time".

<i>Fast and Furry-ous</i> 1949 animated short film by Chuck Jones

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<i>The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie</i> 1979 animated feature film directed by Chuck Jones

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Wigmore, Glenn. "Road Runner's Death Valley Rally - Overview". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Davies, Jonathan (February 1993). "Road Runner's Death Valley Rally review". Super Play . Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  3. "Road Runner's Death Valley Rally". GameRankings. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
  4. Strauss, Bob (December 4, 1992). "Holiday video game guide: 1992". EW.com. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  5. "Top 10 SNES Games of 1992". Nintendo Power. No. 44. United States. January 1993. p. 120. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  6. "Wile E's Revenge (Road Runner 2)". SNES Central.