Irish game developers to bring back Biker Mice from Mars

22 Sep 2015

The 9th Impact development team

Irish game developers 9th Impact are aiming to reignite the cult classic 1990s cartoon Biker Mice from Mars with a new fully-licensed mobile game, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign.

Anyone who grew up during the 1990s will fondly remember their time spent watching some of the best and, frankly, most out-there cartoons created during that period, like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Rocko’s Modern Life and The Tick.

One not included in that list of course is Biker Mice from Mars, which, to explain the plot, followed three anthropomorphic mice — Throttle, Modo and Vinnie — who fled to Earth after Mars was taken over by the evil alien Plutarkians.

The show became a huge favourite across its three seasons between 1993 and 1996, and there was even a short-lived attempt to recreate it in 2007.

And now it is attempting to return once again, but with the unlikely saviours being based not in the biker mice’s hometown of Chicago, but Galway, where the 9th Impact team are based, and it has created a Kickstarter page to help it finish the project.

Biker Mice from Mars

The game itself, Biker Mice from Mars: Rock ‘n’ Ride, has been in development for more than a year and will put you in the driving seat of one of the characters on a forward-scrolling adventure through the streets of Chicago.

“We are huge fans of the Biker Mice from Mars series which we grew up watching on Saturday mornings in the ’90s,” the company’s Kickstarter page says.

“Now that we’re all grown up (sort of) we’ve become game designers, developers and business people. We’ve put all of these skills together in our own company and started building games.”

With a target of €20,000, 9th Impact went to the trouble of making sure a game with the Biker Mice from Mars name would all be above board and, following long discussions, co-founder Mark Quick travelled out to New York to meet with the show’s creator, Rick Ungar, who agreed to grant 9th Impact the rights ahead of several other international companies.

Biker Mice on iPad

Clearly excited about the project, lead game developer at 9th Impact, Finn Krewer, said: “Biker Mice was my absolute favourite show as a kid and developing a Biker Mice game is a dream come true. For me, working with the models of Throttle, Modo and Vinny every day is like getting to hang out with your favourite celebrities.”

The team says that most of the design work has been completed, and all that’s left are some final touches and the necessary public testing before its expected launch in December on both Android and iOS.

“I now have to ensure that the game is deserving of the Biker Mice name and captures the magic that made the original series so great,” said Krewer. “The best way for us to know that we’re getting things right is to ask the real fans. We are asking for their input now and together we’ll make this an awesome game.”

Until then, let’s marvel in the brilliance that was the intro to the original 1990s show.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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