Uniracers

Uniracers is one of the most original racing games on the Super Nintendo — instead of cars or motorcycles, unicycles compete for victory, moving supernaturally fast and, above all, acrobatically along tracks full of ramps, loops and shortcuts. The player doesn't just follow the ideal line but constantly performs tricks and jumps in the air, because every successfully landed stunt recharges the unicycle's energy and speeds it up further, so clean racing and flashy acrobatics keep intertwining and the player is forced to constantly balance a safe route against a risky one.

The game stands out with a clean, colorful two-dimensional look and very fluid animation, which manages to feel surprisingly dynamic even without flashy 3D tricks — the unicycles bend, stretch and wobble according to the terrain and speed, giving the whole game a comical, elastic, almost cartoon-like feel. Besides the classic racing mode, the game also offered combat variants in which riders collide with each other, trying to knock one another off the track or into an obstacle. Short but inventive tracks invite repeat play and the search for the perfect combination of tricks, since even a small miscalculation on a jump can decide the outcome of the whole race. The music and sound effects nicely complement the lighthearted, almost cartoonish atmosphere of the whole game, and together with the elastic unicycle animation create the impression that the player is moving through a grotesque cartoon rather than an ordinary racing game.

Uniracers won fans for its inventiveness and tense multiplayer, though a dispute later arose over an earlier animated commercial using a similar unicycle character, which affected the game's later fate on the market and its availability. Today it's seen as one of the freshest and most memorable racing titles on the SNES — proof that an original idea and precise execution can win people over even without the flashy 3D graphics that dominated the marketing of competing racing games at the time, and retro gaming fans still seek it out today precisely for its unconventional concept.

Why play it: Anyone looking for an original idea instead of flashy 3D graphics will appreciate Uniracers and its tense multiplayer — one of the freshest and most memorable racing games on the SNES.