Bank Heist

"A great game with an original design."

I've always wanted to a bank robber. I have the intelligence to escape from cops and the reflexes to shoot whoever tries to be a hero and save the day, so Bank Heist had me interested for a while. Bank Heist doesn't have you play as a bank robber however, instead it puts you in control of a thief car that robs banks and escapes the police while going through the mazy roads of some place.

Each screen is a maze with three banks placed in random locations. You control the car that is supposed to do the heists very effectively and with flawless response. The objective is to go over as many banks as possible but when you go over a bank, a few seconds later a police car appears in its place and starts chasing you down.

After the police car appears, another bank will appear in place of the previous, and as what you would expect, the more consecutive banks you rob, the more points you get, and the more consecutive police cars you destroy, the more aggressive and fast the newer cars become.

Destroying police cars is done in a slick fashion. Pressing the fire button will have the car leave an explosive "rope" behind you that will make a thunderous sound after it explodes a second or two after its release. This is very fun to experiment with and to do, especially since the maze is not very hard to navigate and controlling the car is easy and smooth. But if you feel like you've got too much action over your head, you can just use the warp openings at the sides of the screen to change positions quickly, and if you do this a few times then you will jump to a different screen with default banks and police cars, just for the little break that you need.

As for the graphics of the game, everything looks great and very pleasing on the eyes. The designs are small but convincing and all the numbers and explosions look great. Sound isn't far behind as the explosions, car engines and heists all sound great and are a pleasure to hear. I know it sounds cliche but it's true.

Overall this is a great game that is very easy just to pick up and play, and is fun and enjoyable to play even today, with its good difficulty and strategic gameplay. Go try it out some time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06