On Rerez we've shown you a bunch of really big video game controllers like the PlayStation Analog Joystick and the Xbox Steel Battalion controller. And for the longest time I thought those were some of the biggest controllers ever made. But it turns out that before those existed they made an even bigger controller for the Super Nintendo and it's possibly rarer than both of those controllers combined. This is the Super Nintendo Exertainment Bike.
The Super Nintendo Exertainment Bike an exercise bike that was originally manufactured by a company called Life Fitness. This bike right here is from their Life Cycle brand. You may have seen exercise bikes that looked like this in the past. In fact you may have seen one that looked exactly like this but this model right here is a modification of another model they sold which allows you to plug it up to a Super Nintendo. After the success of the NES Nintendo found themselves in a position to start creating really strange and interesting products. Things that could attract different markets that weren't just kids playing video games. So one thing led to another and we got this. Whether it was Nintendo that approached Life Fitness first or Life Fitness approaching Nintendo all we can really be sure of is that this device was sold to consumers and gyms in the mid ‘90s all over North America.
When I first got this bike I just assumed that the bike connected to the controller port on a regular Super Nintendo and while it does do that it needed additional power and information to be sent. So what you end up getting is a box underneath the Super Nintendo that plugs up through the expansion port on the bottom of the console which is pretty cool seeing as how in North America that expansion port really wasn't ever used. The cord that you connect directly to the bike is actually an ethernet cord which is pretty much a standard nowadays for input but back then it was more uncommon. You also might be expecting that with this bike you'd be able to turn left and right with the handlebars but you can’t. These handlebars are fixed but on the handlebars are two clip-on controllers that basically represent exactly what a Super Nintendo controller has. You have a start and select button, a very squishy D-pad and A, B, X and Y buttons and two shoulder buttons on the back of the controllers. While the bike itself is a really well engineered piece of hardware I have to say that these controllers just really aren't.
The bike I got was bundled with Mountain Bike Rally and the game itself has some pretty interesting graphics although they're kind of poor. You see while most racing games featured flat levels and stages, stuff that was easy for the SNES to process, this game changed it up. There's actually hills and that's important because when you use the bike with this game the hills are actually harder to get up. Seriously it's difficult. The pedals add resistance making it harder to pedal and that's actually pretty cool. The problem is when you make complex geometry like they did in this game it causes some pretty bad frame rates making the game very difficult to play. Even with that issue though I kind of enjoyed exercising on this thing. I mean it's a novelty sure but you really do work up a sweat. Unfortunately the controls for this game is where it falls apart.
Naturally you want to move the handlebars to steer but you can't so you're forced to awkwardly steer with the directional pad as you maneuver through the course while also attacking opponents as you race to the finish line. There is a solution to the controls though. If you set the difficulty level low enough your character will automatically control its direction but this comes at a very heavy cost. See the harder the difficulty is the more points you get, the more points you get the closer you are to unlocking new stages and if you set the difficulty to autopilot kiss the points goodbye. I'm not even ashamed to say this I got really physically tired after a few rounds of the first stage. I eventually had to give up trying to get enough points because it would have taken almost a full day of biking just to unlock the first stage. It's maddening having the bike control itself shouldn't have come at such a high cost considering that you're physically exerting yourself every single time you play. The game cartridge is also bundled with the program manager and this manager pretty much allows you to set up the bike in any way you want to. You can set yourself on little goals and things like that. It's pretty much exactly what you would find on a regular exercise bike but implemented with the Super Nintendo instead. Now believe it or not this wasn't the only video game cartridge that was released that utilized the Super Nintendo Exertainment Bike. There was actually another and the second one had the exact same Mountain Bike Rally and program manager in it but it also had an additional game now. I know what you're thinking it has to be another sports game right? Possibly featuring a bicycle of some sort? Well you'd be dead wrong.
Why they chose to get the rights to Speed Racer and turn it into a biking game is completely beyond me. Now this game is just like the Speed Racer that was released on Super Nintendo without this bike attachment. It runs the exact same way, plays the exact same way and also has the same advancement system that I absolutely hated in Mountain Bike Rally. The only difference is that for your vehicle to move you have to pedal. Between the two games Mountain Bike Rally and Speed Racer, Speed Racer is a much more fun game to play. It just logically doesn't make any sense. If every time I'm pedaling this car is moving I feel like I'm driving a Little Tikes car or possibly driving the Flintstone’s car. This is just a bizarre choice for a game insert but there it is and it actually does work pretty well. Still though I prefer the original Super Nintendo version because at least with that one you're not sweating profusely every time you finish a race.
So that is a Super Nintendo Exertainment Bike and I have to say guys this thing's pretty worth it. Now when you think about video games that do exercise stuff like Kinect games or PlayStation Move games things that basically use some kind of controller or your body movements to make you exercise they don't really work that well. This game here though actually provides resistance in the pedals and that makes it really hard to work. This is a workout device and it works really well. Sure the games aren't really that good but that doesn't matter. The game itself is not important it's the idea of working out and it's far more enjoyable than just going to a gym and using one of their bikes. So if you really want to get a good workout and try something that is just completely different go and find one of these if you can.
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