C&VG


Road Warrior

Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: CRL
Machine: Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #79

Road Warrior

Sometimes you see a game, and it makes you think "These guys really know what they're doing. This is stylish, up-to-the-minute, imaginative, enjoyable and challenging". Other times, you see a game and you think, "These guys must be a few sandwiches short of a picnic. This is primitive, boring derivative and old-fashioned". Guess which category Road Warrior falls into. Yup!

If you can imagine a horizontally-scrolling version of the arcade dinosaur Spy Hunter, with larger, unidentifiable sprites and unimaginative gameplay, you're halfway to imagining the horror that is Road Warrior.

It is the tenth anniversary of the Death Race; each year since 1990, crazy bikers have gone on a rampage of destruction.

Road Warriors

You have four cars to choose from - God knows why, they all appear to perform in much the same way. You can also select the colour of the car - single colour sprites, mind you.

Having done that, you lurch into the game. At the top left of the roadway appears your speedometer, at the top right your remaining lives, bottom left your score and bottom right your fuel and the number of bikers you have to ice to complete the level.

The bikers and cars come from behind you - and, on later levels, ahead of you too. If you crash into a biker, you lose fuel, and if you crash into a parked car or a boulder, you lose a life.

Road Warriors

If you are running short of fuel, you can press the space bar to move to a garage scene. Here, you hold down the fire button to trade points for fuel.

If you hit a number of times in the front or rear you will lose your weapons. All you can do then is speed along, avoiding obstacles and looking for new weapons which mysteriously appear on the road in front of you. You can also pick up speed-up weapons, but some of the objects are booby-trapped.

The sprites for the extra weapons are so badly designed that you can't tell what they're supposed to be, and some of the bikes are so badly designed that they look like weapons, hence mucho confusion.

This could have been a good game. With a perspective view of the road, smaller more manoeuvrable sprites, better graphic design and some more exciting weapons features, it would have made an excellent budget title. In the absence of any of these, Road Warrior is the most bafflingly disappointing full-price game I've seen for months. The fact you get a free poster with it is little consolation.

Other Reviews Of Road Warrior For The Commodore 64/128


Road Warrior (CRL)
A review

Road Warrior (CRL)
A review by Ken McMahon (Commodore User)