Rapid River is a boating arcade game that was released by Namco in 1997; it was the only other title (after Final Furlong, also 1997) to run on the company's System 22.5 hardware, and the players must sit in a raft-shaped seat and use their side of an enormous paddle mounted on the front of the game's cabinet to paddle the on-screen man (1P) and woman (2P)'s raft down the river (while avoiding rocks, swells, dinosaurs, and whirlpools). There are also several branches in the river, that allow the players to choose their preferred way to go down it - and if they should reach one of the river's three different endings before the timer runs out, they will get to play a secret bonus stage. The game's cabinet also has a pneumatic system, which causes the seat to "jolt" whenever the on-screen raft crashes into an obstacle (just like the sitdown cabinets of the Japan-exclusive Metal Hawk, Starblade and Solvalou).
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Upright arcade cabinet.
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Screenshot of the game.
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Alternative arcade flyer.
