Video Game / Battle Cars

"Welcome. Shall we have tea before we race?"

—Nomad Nathalmu

Battle Cars is a Vehicular Combat racing game developed by Namco and released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It uses the same graphical setup of Mode-7 rendered levels and sprite-based cars as F-Zero, released two years earlier. It's almost as fast-paced as F-Zero, with the added bonus/challenge of Weaponized Cars.

It's 20 Minutes into the Future. Overpopulation and environmental decay, followed by political finger-pointing and nuclear war have left humanity crippled and living in city-states. The jaded remnants of humanity have created a new sport, a sport of Vehicular Combat: Battle Cars. The player takes the role of an up-and-coming racer on a quest to take home the gold. In your way are a variety of twisting tracks and nasty bosses.

That's the career mode. The game also featured a two-player Versus mode.

Battle Cars provides examples of:

• Abnormal Ammo: In addition to missiles and spiked grenades, you can also shoot large metal discs. They're unique in that they rebound off walls, and can be shot around corners if you're skillful.
• Action Girl: Doctor Diana and Maniacal Mariko.
• Alliterative Name: All but a few of the bosses' names.
• Arrogant Battle Cars Cowboy: Medfly Max might not be the only Jerkass in the IBCA, but when you face him he proudly tells you that he's undefeated and you'll fail like all the rest. Unlike others of the trope, though, it seems Max is more interested in hocking his fame and gaining status rather than fighting and racing, as he constantly talks of sponsorships and regards defeating contenders as a waste of time.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Dirty Knuckle Ned, boss of Katmandu, dresses the part of a '50s greaser, replete with slightly messed pompadour. His car helps the overall image, resembling a '50s Chevrolet. Maniacal Mariko also does this, with a red kimono and rice hat.
• Bad Ass Driver: The player character and the bosses. The other drivers don't really count.
• Bald Head of Toughness: Buffed Bachmed, boss of Nuevo Vegas, is as bald as he is muscular. And his machine's no slouch, either.
  Buffed Bachmed: If you think I'm buffed, I.D. my ride.
• Beginner's Luck: In the ending sequence, Foxwharmpit accuses you of this before challenging you to a rematch.
• Blood Sport: According to the manual, Battle Cars reflects the war-torn jadedness of those surviving the upheaval of the 21st century, and was largely influenced by those same events in the same way NASCAR grew out of moonshiners outrunning police during Prohibition in America. The whole Cross County event preceding each race against the boss is actually you and other challengers attempting to reach the boss—who is the champion of the local city-state—while being "weeded out" by both fellow challengers and the local fragment of the Peace-Net defense system under control of aforementioned city-state.
• Boss Battle: At the end of every area. Unlike the Mooks, their cars can't be destroyed- you have to outrace them. They can be slowed down and thrown off course by weapons, though. In later areas, you'll need to use weapons to beat them. Hope you upgraded the disc!
• Celebrity Endorsement: Medfly Max is the in-universe epitome of this—the manual compares the popularity of the best Battle Cars "cowboys" to pop stars and artists of past centuries (and the credits you earn as corporate sponsorship) but Max is the only racer you face who is explicitly "corporate" with his fame. When you face him, he regards you as a waste of time and wants to get back to signing contracts and endorsements. After you beat the game, he begs you to sponsor his team in the Galactic League.
• Cyborg: Metalhead Mike, boss of Newtroit and the first named driver you face. He has a drill in place of one arm, which may be why he's the easiest boss.
• Death Mountain: Katmandu. It seems to be what Kathmandu Valley in Nepal becomes by the 22nd century.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Most obvious with Nomad Nathalmu, who goes from boasting that he will end you to seeking to take tea with you before your next race with him. Doctor Diana, while nowhere near as menacing, is also much friendlier with you after her defeat. Medfly Max also goes from treating you like a waste of time to calling you "buddy" and begging for your sponsorship in the Galactic League, but unlike Diana and Nathalmu, Max clearly just wants to use your status for his own gain.
• Degraded Boss: Expect to see bosses you've defeated make a reappearance as fellow contenders in future Cross Country events. Usually, much like the actual boss races, only one of your former rivals will be present—and unkillable—while the rest will be nameless Mooks. Thankfully, in Cross Country you're racing the clock, not your rivals, so they're more like annoying invulnerable obstacles compared to the enemies that you can destroy for cash.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The grenade weapon lobs spiked bombs a set distance in front of your vehicle. If you can manage to hit anything with it, it'll destroy the Mooks in one shot, unlike the missiles or discs that take three.
• Doppelgänger Spin: If given a chance, Fourarm Foxtherm will do this in your race against him, creating two copies of his car.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin
• Expy: The gameplay is nearly identical to F-Zero, with the key difference being weapons.
• The Faceless: Metalhead Mike, due to his mask, and Nomad Nathalmu thanks to his hood.
• Fictional Sport: As awesome as it is to see futuristic roadsters battle each other—and avoid Death from Above by defense satellites—one hopes that Battle Cars doesn't someday become Truth in Television.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The game's manual leads you to believe that Battle Cars is a sport that humans invented. Both the manual and box art refer to an IBCA (International Battle Cars Association) governing the sport. For most of the game, your opponents are other humans. Once you best Medfly Max, however, you find yourself whisked away from Earth to a curiously orange planet—Centauri IV, where Fourarm Foxtherm warns you "No terrestrial has made it out of the Galactic League alive." Which might explain why he and Foxwharmpit come seemingly out of nowhere ...
• Graceful Loser: Dirty Knuckle Ned, Doctor Diana, and Nomad Nathalmu seem the most magnanimous of all the racers in the ending sequence—Doctor Diana congratulating you and saying it would be a pleasure to race with you again (where before she gloated she'd leave you in the dust) while Nomad Nathalmu bids you take tea with him before racing again in a complete 180 from when he first gloats he'll grind you under his ride's treads.
• Kill Sat: Those purple flying contraptions that appear toward the end of Cross Country events are what remains of the Peace-Net system meant to seek out and destroy anything or anyone perceived as committing hostile acts. (The manual makes a point of saying that this did not stop World War III from happening.) Battle Cars count as aggression, which is why they come after you ... and apparently, Battle Cars "cowboys" love Peace-Net because they figure anyone who gets taken out by the system isn't someone who was worth racing against anyway.
• Lady of War: They might call her "Maniacal Mariko," but she seems rather composed. Brandishing a sword and speaking of Bushido in her first encounter with you, the ending also has her gladly accepting a chance to regain her honor at your expense in a rematch.
• Mook Mobile: The three basic cars all show up as enemies in the levels. They also happen to be the three cars you can choose from. They have identical characteristics and come in a spectrum of colors.
• New Game Plus: All right, you won! Now play the game again, only harder.
• New Neo City: Several of the city-states bear this trope. Newtroit seems to be Detroit—which would be fitting for this game given Detroit was once known as Motor City—and Nuevo Vegas is Las Vegas. There's also New Atlantis, the final location in the game, but given that's on another planet entirely it's more of a Planetville.
• Power-Up Letdown: So you've finally worked out the trick to using Grenades, and wow! They kill the Mooks in one shot! So you upgrade them, hoping to fully exploit your newfound power. Now they fly further, and you've just hit the tracks with shorter straights. Yay!
• Planetville: It's not made explicit whether New Atlantis refers to the city in which you race the Final Boss, or if that's also the name of the whole planet. It also raises other questions as to what, if any, relation New Atlantis has to the Atlantis.
• Puny Earthlings: The last two bosses, aliens Fourarm Foxtherm and Foxwharmpit, don't like humans. In the ending, Fourarm Foxtherm admits you're a good racer ... but that he'll have to stop by Earth and destroy it someday because he doesn't need the competition.
• Remilitarized Zone: The Zone, a ruined city under constant shellfire. Home of Medfly Max.
• Shifting Sand Land: Dakar, home of Nomad Nathalmu.
• Single-Biome Planet: New Atlantis, host to the Final Boss, is mostly ocean.
• Spikes of Villainy: One of the three cars you can use is completely covered in spikes save the wheels, cockpit and exhaust port. It can be seen on the boxart blowing up Metalhead Mike's car.
• Techno Wreckage: Meltdown is a sprawling, yet ruined reactor complex.
• Time Trial: Each region has two races. The first—Cross Country—is this, the second is a head-to-head race against the boss. You get more credits the faster you complete Cross Country events. In either case, the Mook Mobiles are there purely to get blown up.
• Vehicular Combat: Naturally. The "Battle" in "Battle Cars" doesn't come a competition of pure racing skill.
• Viva Las Vegas!: Though it isn't explicitly said, Nuevo Vegas—Buffed Bachmed's domain—seems to be Sin City in the 22nd century.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: If you hadn't realized yet, Maniacal Mariko's absurdly maneuverable three-wheeled motorcycle will clue you in to the fact that this game isn't screwing around.
• Weaponized Car: Every single car has weapons in this game. Yours, the Mooks, the bosses.
• We Will Spend Credits in the Future: You'll earn both cash and credit in Cross Country Time Trial events. The manual says the IBCA awards you with cash with every Mook's car you destroy—though killing the Peace-Net satellites that appear near the end of the event also count—while it's the Mega Corps that award you credits for how fast you complete the event. The manual explains that while you use cash to upgrade your car, "Only the big corporations have weapons anymore ... So be nice to the suits or else."
• Wicked Cultured: Doctor Diana, boss of Meltdown, who is in fact a doctor. You wouldn't know by looking at her.
• A Winner Is You: Averted, interestingly enough. While the credits roll, you're treated to some new dialogue from all the bosses. Nomad Nathalmu, for example, invites you for a cup of tea and a friendly rematch. On the other hand, the the aliens want you dead and can't comprehend how you beat them. To be fair, their incredulity is justified.
• Wretched Hive: Newtroit, and most other cities if the Back Story is anything to go on.
• Wutai: Manaical Mariko's home region of Fuji looks to be a quiet temple retreat near the eponymous Mount Fuji in stark contrast to the other areas. (Who knows, it might even incorporate whatever remained of Fuji Speedway by the 22nd century.)