Lucky & Wild

Lucky & Wild (ラッキー＆ワイルド, Rakkī Ando Wairudo) is a first person racing/shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1993; it ran on Namco System 2 hardware.

The first player's character, "Lucky", a sophisticated man in a business suit, has to both drive by means of a steering wheel and accelerator pedal, and shoot using the first light gun; however, the second player's character, "Wild", a surfer with long blond hair, needs to assist in the pursuit with the second light gun. The players must help Lucky and Wild catch six wanted suspects ("Jerky", "Gambit", "Juliora", "Keel", "Bear", and "Big Cigar" himself). As they pursue the suspect for every stage, Lucky and Wild must fire at enemy cars, and shoot down enemies in sight, along with any projectiles fired at them, and obstacles that block them. When they catch up with the suspect, they must continuously fire upon their car until its energy is depleted; if they succeed in doing so, they will have captured the suspect and will receive a reward, but if the stage's timer runs out, the suspect will escape (indicated by the text of "got away" appearing on the screen). After each stage, Lucky and Wild shall drive onto the "Pink Cats Garage" to get their car repaired for the next stage, where they will be "entertained" by young women wearing cats' tails and ears. The game ends when all six stages are cleared, regardless of how many suspects have been captured. There are also five different ways to play the game: one player driving and shooting with another player shooting, but also one player driving with another player manning the gun, one player driving with another player manning both guns, one player driving, another player manning one gun and a third player manning the second gun, and one single player manning both guns while driving (unofficial), for Namco never manufactured a game that allowed a maximum of three players to play simultaneously.

Lucky & Wild was the creation of Yutaka Kounoe, a video game designer who joined Namco in 1991. His first project was Tank Force, an arcade sequel to Tank Battalion, later working on the original Point Blank and the Time Crisis series.

Lucky & Wild is also borrowed as a fictional American tuning car company brand in the Ridge Racer games with products being muscle cars (similar to those of Danver); the formation of Lucky & Wild protagonists later appeared in Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, with one player driving and the second serving as the gunner. Also, in the first episode of the interactive video series Bear Stearns Bravo, Bear Stearns CEO Jackie Dalton refers to the regulators Franco and Henri by the names "Lucky & Wild".

Game Machine claims that Lucky & Wild was the third most popular arcade game of May 1993 in Japan. RePlay also reported Lucky & Wild to be the fourth most popular deluxe arcade game at the time. Play Meter listed Lucky & Wild to be the twenty fifth most popular arcade game at the time as well. Time Extension called it "one of the most incredible titles of the '90s and a game that sorely deserves to get a lot more attention than it currently does."