Peddling in the ‘Cades?

I fondly recall the days of heading to the arcade on my bike with a pocket full of quarters seeking out excitement! Whether it was taking up the role as a vigilante and fending off criminals on the streets, or hopping on a badass superpowered motorbike cruising the streets the arcades always held a magic place for gamers of all ages to live out these crazy dreams!

At the turn of the later 16-bit into the 32/64-bit eras, home consoles had started to catch up to arcades in terms of graphical and gameplay quality. In response arcades had become full of some of the zaniest coin-op machines imagineable. Take your pick from motorcycle racing to amazing light gun experiences, the community arcades were on the cusp of major change!

I distinctly recall one time when I was visiting family that lived roughly 10 miles (roughly 16 km) from town. I was there for a week, and was annoyingly asking how far to the nearest arcade. We found out through friends that there was an arcade in town, and got the address. So we set our alarm clocks for early morning on a hot summer day, grabbed a quick wash up and headed out the door. We made good time, but I hadn’t been used to biking such long distances so my legs were that of jelly. But… what if you could manage to get all of this leg-jellifying action all inside the comfort of your local arcade? Insert; PROP CYCLE!

NAMCO’s newest arcade experience was one half incredible concentration and half aerobic workout. Putting you the player on a bike, and peddling to SAVE THE PLANET! This place was called “Solitar” and through insane cut-scenes you find out quickly that in order to save everyone you must hop on a prepeller cycle thingy and pop a crap-load of red balloons. That’s right! It’s you against the timer to see if you can pop as many as possible to get you through 4 incredible stages of fun! Can you do it all in 1CC? I mean, you’re the one paying actual physical money for this, so can you?

The game offered two primary modes. Novice mode focused on single-stage point accumulation. Players could select from three environments: Cliff Rock, Wind Woods, or Industarn. This mode was designed to help players familiarize themselves with the maps and hidden paths, but progress was limited by a time constraint.

Advanced mode incorporated a narrative, following the unnamed hero through a series of stages. Players needed to achieve a minimum point score in each stage to advance. Failing to meet the score requirement resulted in a restart with a reduced point target. Excess points earned in one stage did not carry over to subsequent stages.

Not surprising in the least Prop Cycle was never seen outside of the arcades, and finding it in the wild is a pretty rare occasion. Have you ever played it? Did you somehow find yourself in an arcade, having just peddled 10 miles in order to enter said arcade, only to find yourself about to peddle even more so you can give a machine $1 and save Solitar? Only a complete idiot would do something so foolish. Hi, my name is Joshua, thank you for reading!