Gaming's Best Bikes -- Dead Rising 2, Full Throttle and Other Favorite Motorcycle Mounts

Light Cycles are awesome. There's just no denying that. Sure, lightsabers are cool and can cut through pretty much everything, but you can't jump on one and fly away at incredibly high speeds. Every kid who saw Tron wanted his very own light cycle (or a Recognizer, but parking those things would be a pain in the ass), especially because when you didn't need it - *zap* - it would just de-rez. Extremely handy when you don't have time to search for a $15 parking space.

Tron: Legacy amps up the two-wheeled excitement with updated and streamlined cycles, and even though the game is getting Light Tanks as you saw in our exclusive TRON: Evolution reveal, the cycles are still one of the defining elements of this franchise. But what about other gaming bikes? There have been a slew of titles over the years, ranging from the realistically good (Tourist Trophy), to the arcadey fun (Joe Danger), to the the just plain WTF!? (BMX XXX).

So what are some of the best bikes out there in the world of gaming? We've got our favorites. Check them out, and then us know what two-wheeled form of game transport is your favorite.

Excitebike

This NES classic not only stole countless hours of our childhoods thanks to its heart-pounding competitive multiplayer and “just one more race” enticing single-player, but it also included a feature all too common in modern games: a level editor. I can still remember the sense of creative freedom that came with being able to build my own track, complete with any combination of jumps, ramps, or obstacles that I saw fit, and then race it just moments later. We love Excitebike because of the high-flying racing, but we’ll always have a soft spot for the track builder. And we’re fine with that. This game produced more hours of mindless fun than anything else that was out at the time, and we want to go fire it up right now to hit some sweet jumps.

Paperboy

Visions of that poor kid peddling his balls off as he tries to make his deliveries while avoiding an endless stream of kid-hating jerk-bags, bees, and even tornados (you know, all the standard trappings of a typical American neighborhood) are still just as clear as they were back in the arcade/NES days when Paperboy was in its prime. While the game did teach us a thing or two about holding down a steady job (and the supremely vital role the paperboy played in the success/failure of the newspaper industry), it was always more satisfying to chuck a paper through some fool's living room window than make the perfect toss into his mailbox. Did anyone build an arcade version of the game that used a stationary bike as a controller? If not, talk about a wasted opportunity. And by “wasted opportunity,” I mean “sound financial decision.” Still, we're surprised that there isn't a giant plastic bike that you have to pedal in order to play a game. Turn the Wiimote into your virtual "paper" and this game is ripe for a Wii-make.

Full Throttle

There have been four video games with the title Full Throttle but only one is truly worthy of the game. Before Tim Schafer was Tim Schafer, he was…well, he was still Tim Schafer, but also the creator of beloved adventure games at LucasArts. And one of the crowning achievements of his point-and-click days was this heavy metal tinged tale of a biker named Ben who gets caught up in a sordid tale of murder, gang violence, and prospects of mini-van manufacturing (hovercraft mini-vans, but mini-vans nonetheless). This entire game lives and breathes the motorcycle culture, and you'll know exactly how much you love your own bike when you have to rebuild it. There's bike-based combat, navigating, and plenty of eardrum-shattering rumbles. There was very nearly a sequel to this, and the fact that they had a working prototype yet still abandoned this (back when LucasArts tossed all of their adventure game development under the bus) is just entirely depressing. LucasArts, you need to bring Full Throttle back ASAP. Or at least give us a playable XBLA/PSN edition.

Road Rash

The second “traditional” cycle-based racer on the list secured its spot by chain-whipping me in the face with its sense of speed and … chain-whipping mechanics. Seriously, racing motorcycles at deadly speeds down narrow, two lane streets isn’t dangerous enough that you let racers punch, kick, and club each other off their motorcycles, too? To be fair, the animation that was used to show a rider toppling off his bike will never fail to elicit a nostalgic groan, and we would gladly take a chain to the dome for that any day. In fact, pounding on your fellow racers quickly became the focus for this game, and any sort of strategy involving tight turns or drafting goes out the window entirely. While there were no actual road rashes featured in this game, you really wanted to give one to every racer that you faced in the game. Luckily, there was a myriad of weapons to choose from to achieve this very goal. Which explains why all racers should carry bats.

Dead Rising 2

To be fair, running over hordes of zombies with a standard motorcycle is enjoyable enough, but it isn’t nearly as effective or efficient to be a viable means for disposing of the undead in the unlikely (yet inevitable) event you find yourself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Luckily, Capcom shared our concern, and have given us a perfect solution to this very pressing issue: the Slicycle, which combines all of the best elements of motorcycles and chainsaws to create the most devastating and chop-tastic chopper this side of Chippy Chip’s Hoppin’ Chop Shop (located at the intersection of Made and Up). While this two-wheeled menace can be built in the single-player portion of the game, each Terror is Reality event ends with a timed slicycle match, so there are plenty of ways for you to familiarize yourself with the awesome power of this beastly creation before the day when you'll be called upon to use one to carve your way to freedom through a sea of actual undead tourists.

And if you missed our other Epictober content, jump in the wayback machine to look at a brief history of Disney video games or check out any of our previous Epictober content:

• TRON: Evolution features never-before-seen Light Tanks
• Tomorrow City first look from Disney Epic Mickey
• The Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood  "Alliance Mode" reveal
• An exclusive look at the "Kowloon" single-player level in Black Ops
• More Black Ops goodness with the "Jungle" multiplayer level
• Brand-new Bob and Steve!
• Exclusive look - Fallout: New Vegas's White Glove Society quest line