Escape Kids (Japan, 2 Players) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Escape Kids © 1991 Konami Industry Company, Limited.

An unusual take on the overhead racing genre, Escape Kids has up to 4 players taking on the role of an athletic runner and competing to be the first to cross the finish line in a number of 3-lap races. As well as running, each player has a limited number of 'Super Jumps'; these allow the player to leap over both rival runners and obstacles.

Money is awarded for finishing first, and players can upgrade their runner depending on the amount of money they have available. Runners can be given extra super jumps, an upgrade to stop the runner from skidding when going through a bend in the track, quicker recovery time from falls, or be made stronger (and thus less likely to be knocked over by a rival runner). Special items occasionally appear and can be picked up and used. These range from an item that causes a small earthquake (causing all of the rival runners to tumble along the ground, thus slowing them down) and a bomb, which renders any runner that runs into it unable to move for several seconds.

Each race has a total of five competitors (either human or computer controlled) and players must finish in first place or are disqualified. Any player who wins all three races in a round will be taken to a bonus screen. Here, the player's on-screen counterpart rides a bike and the player must collect as much money as possible.

TECHNICAL
Main CPU: KONAMI (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), K053260 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2

TRIVIA
Escape Kids was released in January 1991.

Some of the sounds in Escape Kids were recycled for other Konami titles:

• The 'oh yeah' (when you insert a coin in Escape Kids) was used as part of the name entry music in "X-Men".
• When you do a super jump during game-play one of two familiar noises happen:

1) The sound that is used in "The Simpsons" whenever you hit someone.
or
2) The 'yippee' which was later used for "Sunset Riders"'s coin noise.

Soundtrack releases:
Konami Game Music Collection Vol.3 [King Records - KICA-7502 - May 5, 1991]

STAFF
Character Graphics: Hiroshi Iuchi

CONTRIBUTE
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