Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

"Too bad this cart backfires, Wile E. Coyote-style"

I loved the Road Runner cartoons as a young lad, and I even have to confess to enjoying watching them again as an adult. It is only logical, then, that I immediately pounced on Road Runner: Death Valley Rally (RRDVR) when I had the chance to acquire it. What I didn't realize was that the game would be a terrible disappointment; like the Coyote, I have lusted after a good thing only to find that it is just beyond my grasp.

GRAPHICS (9/10)
Big beautiful sprites and large characters dominate this game's graphics. The game suffers from a monotonous desert setting, limiting the color palette that can be used. With this in mind, I have to give the artists very high marks for making a visually attractive game.

MUSIC & SOUND (6/10)
Road Runner ''beep-beeps'' exactly as he should. Actually, I can't remember much about the music/sound outside of that. That means it couldn't have been too good or too bad, right?

CHALLENGE (7/10)
This game can be quite challenging due to the extensive platform-jumping that the levels require. This is part, but certainly not all, of the frustration of RRDVR, as you will read below…

GAMEPLAY/FUN FACTOR (3/10)
This game isn't fun because it isn't a Road Runner game, no matter what the label on the cartridge might say. Yes the characters are there, but the level design is nothing like the cartoons. In the famed animated sequences, the Road Runner is always screaming down desert highways, through canyons and narrow mountain passes, etc. Not here, though; the game's creators apparently thought they couldn't pull off an entertaining and challenging design by sticking to the old script. What you get instead are numerous platforms to leap to and from, SLOWING YOU DOWN to a pace more worthy of Bugs Bunny and his bouncy rabbit friends.

FRUSTRATION FACTOR (8/10)
The platforming isn't overwhelmingly hard, but it can be very slow and boring and un-Road Runner-like, so that is a source of great frustration. Unfortunately, the comic relief included isn't enough to make plowing through the levels sufficiently rewarding that you'll want to finish the game. Don't get me wrong, there are some very cute sequences that pay homage to the old cartoons - they just aren't frequent enough or funny enough to be worth it.

REPLAY VALUE (7/10)
Although the level design is quite boring, RRDVR has quite a bit of replay value due to the fact that you can try to finish levels in faster times - and thus get higher scores. This is nothing truly outstanding, but still more what many similar games offer in the way of long-term value.

GAME VALUE (3/10)
This game gets very repetitive despite the replay appeal. That, combined with the failure to be true to the spirit of the Road Runner cartoons, means that RRDVR just isn't worth much of your money or time.

THE BOTTOM LINE
A decent platformer, RRDVR fails almost completely as a Road Runner game.

FINAL RATING: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/08/01, Updated 07/08/01