RoadBlasters

"Roads. Blasting. RoadBlasters."

I only ever saw the arcade machine once, a few years ago. I put my money in and like most arcade machines, it was really hard. Much harder than the version I was used to. The car wasn't even as fast, so it wasted fuel quicker too. Talk about cheap. Pretty good though for 1986. Reminded me of Outrun. RoadBlasters was brought to the Lynx by Tengen in 1990. Tengen were (are? No, that's just optimism) Atari's development team that handled the arcade conversions. Did a pretty good job, too. With RoadBlasters I mean, not Pit-Fighter. Not Pit-Fighter.

It's the future. You gotta stop a nuclear war. How? By racing your car. Racing it through 50 levels. It'll be tough, but you got weapons. Cruise Missiles. UZ Cannons. Electro Shields. You gotta stop the...yellow cars. And the green ones. Watch out for the yuppies in the blue limos as well. They'll try to run you down. Changing lanes without so much as an indicator. No ''thank-you'' wave either.

You are welcomed with a would-be pumpin' melody at the title, and a picture of your car parked in front of Bubble City. Reminds me of OZ. Start the game to find a warp. There are a few more of these found later. You don't have to play all 50 levels, although you can if you want. Warps allow you to skip a few. Much better that way. Speed is so important. You get fuel. Run out of fuel and you're out. The scrolling is smooth at high speed and the trees and rocks that fly by do just that.

You car moves fluidly when turning corners. Driving on oil causes a spin-out. You lose speed, but you get to marvel at your car doing a 360 with great animation. Is it worth it? As you race, enemies try to kill you. Try to crash you. Most of them are suicidal. Shoot them. At top speed you are faster than them, shoot them when they appear. Hard thing to do though when turning a blind corner. Slow down.

Watch for the special weapons. They'll fly over your head waiting to be picked up. A great friend. Hold up on the control pad until reaching top speed. Green and red fuel globes help you out just at the right time. Clearly the races were well thought out. Enemies appear just where you don't want them. Get a nitro boost and the race becomes fast. Very fast. Now that's cruisin'.

When shooting, don't do wildly. Accuracy means much. You have a multiplier. It increases up to ten every time your shot hits. But decreases when missing. Nice idea, helps stop wild firing and makes the game harder. Even more incentive - points received in level determine how much reserve fuel you take into the next level. Some levels make you go out and find the fuel. Make you shoot cars that reveal red globes. Pressure.

Controls are responsive. Simple as that. A is fire, B is special. There's a lot of speech. A little bit static though. The lady gives advice during levels while the man gives it between them. Pray the woman doesn't speak. It's often bad. ''Danger, mines ahead''. ''Special weapon lost''. She sometimes gives encouragement though. The man mumbles some advice after the first few levels as if he is in fact a bad guy who is resistant in telling you what to do.

Rarely there's an empty road. Lots of enemies. Some are drawn better than others. Easy to identify which to shoot and which to avoid and give an angry face to. Backgrounds look good. Colourful, varied. The road ahead is very far. You can see the distant horizon thinly because the road is what is dominant. I like the explosion when you crash.

No music during races. Would have liked a piece to pump me up. Races are never quiet. The engine that hovers, the hum of the others passing. Gun-fire. The hum of others passing. Cruise missile. The hum of others passing. Lady. Sound effects are good, but few pieces of music. In fact there are only two plus the short tune upon finishing a level.

Graphics aren't as clean as arcade. But they don't look as cartoony either. Easier than arcade. Your car can go faster. Waste less fuel. Four continues helps a lot. 50 levels is heaps. Levels vary in length. Good replay value. My third Lynx game. Played this for months on purchase. I Still play it now. I have a GBA. I still play it now. Classic Lynx game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/02, Updated 06/28/02