Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally features side-scrolling platform gameplay.^[2] The player controls Road Runner, who must avoid being eaten by Wile E. Coyote.^[2] The game consists of five different environments, with each one containing three levels and a boss battle.^[2] Coyote has a unique method of ambush for every level, ranging from the Acme Batman outfit to explosives, and for every level there is a cutscene of the contraption failing once the player crosses the finish mark.^{[citation needed]} After every three levels, Road Runner battles against one of Wile E. Coyote's super weapons in a boss fight.^[3]

Road Runner has a series of control movements useful to beating the game, including jumping and running. Road Runner can also peck his beak to kill enemies, and can eat bird seeds that give him a burst of turbo speed, allowing him to scale walls. However, turbo speed can only be used a limited number of times, as it depletes the bird seeds; additional turbo speed is gained by consuming more bird seeds.^[3] The boost also acts as an invincibility, being able to destroy enemies and resist damage from Coyote.^{[citation needed]} The player can also make Road Runner say "meep-meep!" and make him stick out his tongue, although neither serves a gameplay function.^[3]

Throughout the levels, there are four kinds of flags that players can find and raise. Flags award points and act checkpoints if the player loses a life. Flags worth more points are rare (appearing once or twice per level), while the flags worth the least points are more plentiful (appearing 4-8 times in each level). The levels also include road signs, which can indicate the direction of the level's endpoint, warn of danger, or hint to special items or hidden areas.^[4]

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally received average critical reception.^[25][26][27] Entertainment Weekly's Lou Kesten found it to be a fun, fast-paced game similar to Mario, stating that it evokes the classic Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1950s.^[16]

Super Play's Jonathan Davies criticized the game's platforming levels, horrible controls, poor collision detection, lack of a password feature, and high difficulty.^[3] Official Nintendo Magazine described the game as a disaster, finding little to praise outside its graphics. They criticized the gameplay, highlighting how the sprites are too big for the screen compared to the platforms which results in trial and error as players try to guess platform's locations and eliminates any feeling of speed. They found the game to be dull, tedious, and frustrating.^[10]

Nintendo Power ranked the game 10# in their Top SNES Games of 1992 writing: "The feeling of the classic cartoon is captured through great character animations, sampled sounds and hilarious defeat scenes for Wile E. Coyote."^[28]

A sequel, titled Wile E's Revenge, was in development by Software Creations and was planned as a follow-up to Death Valley Ralley. Unlike the first game, the sequel would allow the user to control Wile E. Coyote as he chases the Road Runner. The game was cancelled because of Sun Corporation of America's bankruptcy in 1995.^[29]