Retro Game of the Day! Banishing Racer

Retro Game of the Day! Banishing Racer

Banishing Racer by Jaleco for Nintendo GameBoy, circa 1991 (Japan only). Commence pulling your eyeballs out of their sockets.... now!

The early period of GameBoy releases was a strange time. We've made no bones about this fact here, on Retro Game of the Day. Banishing Racer -probably supposed to be called Vanishing Racer, but eh - is a very good example of this fact.

I seldom do this, but a quick look at a YouTube video will clue you in on what's in store. This is basically a platformer with a SD auto as it's mascot. You are racing cross-country, against who - other Banishing Racers? - is not really clear, but no matter. It's your basic platformer business. Travel to the right, don't get touched by enemies (unless you hop on 'em), don't get shot at, don't fall in a pit. Standard procedure.

So, why even care about a game like this? Because - it is a weird little obscure Japanese game, and I love-love-love talking about weird little Japanese games. Sure, so many of them are utter crap (there's a reason they never got localized for the West!) but even several of the subpar titles are still worth a moment's notice for just a little entertainment.

I got my hands on the rom a good several years ago, booted it up purely at random. "Hey all right! I'm a little car who can.. jump in caves!" And fly with.. Angel Wings.. uh.. yeah. Honestly, I do love this stuff, you can take your Halo Combat Evolved and Killzone 2 and stick them where the sun don't shine. I want to jump around San Francisco with Dead Angel Happy Car. I like videogames where they don't bother with convention too much, it's a video game, it can be anything the developer imagines! Sure, the game is pretty simplistic in all of it's ambitions, and is forgotten as soon as it's been put down - but I have a soft spot in my heart for these weird little titles that are waiting to be discovered out there, in the wild.