Road Avenger

"An action/reaction animation game in the vein of Dragon's Lair. An Anime of quality, though."

How does one start when writing a review for an obscure game he played many, many years ago on a system few liked? Lets establish the situation at the time of the game's release. Genesis is slowly dying. Super Nintendo has nothing of interest except for the occasional RPG. Then Sega CD came out and I immediately bought in to it's little elite fandom of those who knew quality and didn't listen to biased fools. Road Avenger(Road Warrior in Japan) came out towards the beginning of the system's short success. I got it used from a tiny store just a few blocks away from me for something like $15. I popped it in and I was impressed. I was already a fledgling Anime fan and this game just sparked my fanaticism. Without further delay, let me tell you of this little game.

STORY--8
I put this first because is such a game this was the first thing that mattered. The opening displays what occurred. You are a cop with his newlywed wife, probably an hour or so after the ceremony, driving through the desert on the way to your honeymoon vacation spot. A gang of bikers appear and attack you. Your wife is injured baddly. As your car blows up in the distance(you've escaped) you hold your wife as she dies; as you watch the flames flicker on your car's remains you vow vengence. Soon you are driving a suped-up car and pursuing members of the biker-punk gang that killed your wife. A bit generic, but it's executed oh so nicely.

Gameplay--8
Road Avenger's gameplay was of the simple action/reacion type where you push a button or direction when they ask you. There were a few differences that made Avenger better than the usual. First, the entire game takes place in a car(roughly 95%, actually). Second, your choice of buttons were quite good--turbo, brake, attack, left and right. Third, the button pressing made sense compared to the actual animation--if you were about to crash you had to press brake or if there is an object in your way you have to swerve into the lane next to you. Fourth, they had a hard difficulty where you don't get the directions, but you could still kind of play. And Lastly, their were parts where you choose what to do amongst the choices they give you--a car brakes in front of you, do you brake or swerve to another lane? These choices gave the game some much-needed variety. The game was of an actual decent length and was a joy to play.

Graphics--9
The game had some quality animation. It is Japanese animation, Anime, but with a more universal art style(the eyes were't large and so on). They frame rate was quite high and the game was very fast paced. The levels and enemies were quite varied and the obstacles used weren't repeated endlessly. When you died, it was a cinema that was an alternative to the right cinema--not just Game Over or a generic death cinema. The game had real flare and design. The opening cinema was really nice and the vocal song was excellent--and this it the American version with an English song! I never did play the Japanese version(Japanese Sega CD games were quite rare). I loved this game's art style and level design. They were some real cinematic moments, not just straight game play. For instance--on one of the boards in the middle of the game you are chasing a truck through a park. There is a part where you follow the truck as it crashes through the wall and leaves the park. After you do so they go to a quick shot of two young boys holding ice cream cones slowly blinking their eyes in confusion and suprise--you just narrowly missed them by a foot or so. It was a nice moment and such cinematic pieces current somewhat frequently in this game.

Sound and Music--8
As I mentioned above the game had very excellent opening vocal song. Well, the rest of the game is similar. Quality music, mostly of the high tempo action kind. When they do choose to play the sad music, it actual holds up quite well. The sound effects were also quite good, but there weren't too many of them. The greatest effects were the little snippets of dialog from the various punks you run over or punch--truly hilarious. The acting of the voices wasn't anything special, but the main character never spoke anyway--just the enemies.

Conclusion
I give this game an 8 overall, but a 10 within the dead genre of Action/Reaction games. I enjoyed the premise, the art and the somewhat complex game play. I know this will be nearly impossible to find, but if you can try it out--it'll probably cost you only a buck or two. One last note, this game was released for the Japanese Playstation early in it's release. It was a bonus that came with a brand new Action/Reaction game called Thunder Storm where you flew a helicopter--I never played it, but I wish I could now.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99