"Twisted Metal Lynx?"

When it comes to car combat games, you’ll probably think of Twisted Metal before you really dive deeper into video game genre history and find out that Battlewheels was actually the first. Featured on the Atari Lynx, you take control of a rather inventive sports car that is armed to the teeth with missiles, machine guns and other various implements of mass destruction! But, the farther you get into the game, the harder it may be to really understand what the game is all about and if there is really any sort of plot to it that is discernable through the game play. Think of this game as being the beginning of something that would eventually become a rather killer genre in later years, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Battlewheels is all about.

Some of the prime features that this title gives you are that you can link up with up to six other people on other Lynx systems through the ComLynx and really have one hell of a battle. Through the use of various, although limited options you can customize your vehicle in several different ways in order to make yourself unique! Now, you’re not just stuck to your car in this title, but you can get out and run away from your heap to give yourself some time to jack another vehicle and continue the match. With all of these options, you may wonder why the game gets an average rating and here is why…

The game play is pretty intense for the first couple of hours that the game is played, but it quickly turns into a cat and mouse game that is easily leveled through the use of the difficulty feature. To make this a little more interesting, you can get out of your vehicle in order to pick up different objects on the battlefield and therefore increase your money to buy new armaments. When you get out of your vehicle, you’re not necessarily a sitting duck with your handgun and the missile launcher, but if you miss with either, you’ll be road pizza before you can blink! Add into this the fact that when you start playing the one-player game, you more or less play matches up to a point that you can’t earn anymore money and then start all over again.

Through the use of the options section, you can help or hinder yourself with several in game options that range from using a pre-designed car to customizing your own and putting yourself on a budget. The action that you encounter is effected by the way that you choose to play and if you’re not careful, you may just be a sitting duck out on the battlefield, waiting with a bulls eye on your hood! Although these small features allow you to have some replay value, you’ll find that the limitations on just how much you can do will become apparent after a week of playing, if you get that far.

Control is nothing short of perfection though, with the ability to move and use your surroundings to be nothing more than a couple of minutes of familiarizing yourself with how to switch out weapons. Changing views is nothing too complicated and in all actuality, you’ll need to learn how to do this to check the damage to your own car! Weapons switching is nothing more than just hitting a button and if you’ve got an impressive armament, you’ll be able to select just what goes where and where it comes up in your weapons selection. All in all, this is a user friendly game in terms of the control, with nothing more than a few short minutes of play to get both veteran gamers and beginners into the mix of things.

Visually, the game is played through the first person view for much of the game, considering that you’re behind the wheel of your car. You may find that all of the cars look and drive the same, with weapons coming across as nothing too special with effects being rather simple! The color swapping that you find throughout the game is nothing more than a brief glance because the game seems to move at top speed all the time. With the constant, frantic action that the game represents, you may find that the game moves a little too fast to really see everything that is going on throughout the matches, and even in the menu options, it’s rather simple to watch.

Most of what you’ll hear for the sound only comes in during the between matches, with some decent tunes giving you a sort of elevator music to listen to before you go back to blowing things up. As a general rule with the Lynx action games that I’ve played, the sound effects seem to take a higher precedence over everything else in the game and Battlewheels is no exception to the rule. The roar of the engines and even the explosions all sound extremely well done, with most of this being attributed to the stereo sound feature that is implemented in this title! If you’re looking for some music to go along with your game play, then you might want to throw on your walkman or something, because what you’ll find here is little more than a brief waiting music before you go back to the game.

Battlewheels is a pretty good game that falls to the average level simply because with all of the options that are available, you’ll run through them rather quickly and be beating the game with ease. Through the use of good visuals and excellent control, it’s hard to understand why games such as this didn’t sky-rocket the Lynx to legendary status. However, unless you’ve got a few friends that have a Lynx system, the multiplayer option is useless and the single player game doesn’t seem to hold enough depth after a week of play to warrant any future interest in the title. If you’re into car combat games and you’ve got a Lynx, then this will be a solid buy through the online world, but if you want a depth filled game that requires more thought than just smashing a button, look for something else!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/19/02, Updated 01/19/02