"Yawn..."

Well, I purchased a Sega Genesis Nomad a month ago and since I've been buying up all the old Genesis games I can remember. I bought this for $4.95 - purely to fill up space on the shelf. Down to the game. Well, okay, first some history. I remember back in the early '90's when this game was in the arcades it was actually rather popular. You started the car by actually using a key and the steering wheel offered force feedback - wow! It wasn't that exciting, however as I said these gimmicks seemed to earn the game some attention. The game, for it's time had okay graphics - nothing wowing - but it drew a steady flow of coins.

Okay, onto the Genesis version. To sum it up quickly the game sucks. The number I gave the game really doesn't matter all you have to know is the game is really sub-par. It's probably not even worth the $4.95 I paid for it - but as I said I'm collecting and I figured what the hell.

You can pick the ''speed track'' (LAUGHS) or the ''stunt track.'' The ''speed track'' is supposedly a track where you focus on getting high speeds. That would be cool if the game offered any real sensation of SPEED or if you could in anyway manage to stay on the track without pulling the car to a complete stop. You'll find yourself coming off the track, no matter how good you are, at which time you'll find an annoying message saying you've got 10 seconds to get back on the track. If you for some reason can't, i.e. you're just not very good at the game, or more likely you've put the game down and walked out of the room the game will actually pick you up and place you back on the track.

The second track is of course the stunt track, where you get to loop-de-loop and go over big bumps. But don't drive over the bumps too fast, oh, no, that will cause you to crash into the road and crack your windscreen. It's just such a dull game.

Graphics - The cars, trucks, buildings and any of the other limited amounts of details added to the game basically consist of monotone cubes. I am guessing whoever programmed this game wasn't properly educated.

2/10

Sound - Bland effects that don't particularly sound like anything are about as good as this game has. In fact, the overall feel of the game is so bland a much better title for the game would be ''Bland Drivin'''. They're not even cool sound bland effects - you know like in Galaga - I love the sound of the ships ''fire'' sound effect and the music when you finish a level. It's simple, but memorable and catchy - certainly not above what the Genesis was capable of. But, they couldn't even come up with a monotonous tune to race to. I mean, I'd almost award this game another point if it had a bad monotonous tune to race to - like OutRun or Super Hang-On - which had several monotonous tunes to race to. So, with no memorable music and some of the most pathetic attempts at sound effects I've heard (even on the Genesis) this gets as low as I can give.

1/10

Presentation - Nothing original, fresh or otherwise indicative of some effort being put into the game. You get a title screen, a game over screen, a chance to enter your initials if you get a high score all pretty basic. That's about it. Oh, there's a map of the track too so you can decide whether you want to take the ''speed track'' (HA!) or the thrilling ''stunt track.''

If you're seriously after a fun racing game to play, by all means avoid this game! I only purchased it because I'm trying to re-build a collection.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/01, Updated 10/06/01