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Badlands

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Lorenzo has written 23 additional reviews

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Written by Lorenzo

July 31, 2001

Comments

Remember "Super Sprint" ? It was a great success in 1986, an arcade game by Atari featuring 4 little cars racing on a small circuit. Nothing special, but the game was fun and I've spent a lot of coins on this one when I was a kid. Later, two clones of this game were released; "Ivan "Iron man" Stewart's off road challenge" (couldn't they just call it "Ironman", to make things simple ?) and "Badlands", very similar to Super Sprint but set in a post - nuclear background...


Graphics

Quite good and smooth, even if there's little or no scrolling. Both "Super Sprint" and "Badlands" feature single - screen circuits, and so all you have to do is drive your sprite around the screen following the track. Anyway, this isn't a real problem, and there are 8 different tracks to see.


Sound

No digital FX, sorry... just plain chip music by Matt Furniss, but it's not bad considering its limitations. A few decent tunes and some "vroom vroom, bang bang" FX. Nothing more.


Gameplay

Well, to be honest, the arcade conversion was made by Tengen - Domark, the infamous duo who released games such as "S.T.U.N. Runner", "Hard Drivin'" and "Hydra", some of the greatest loads of bullsh*t in gaming history, but this one ain't that bad. It's not only quite good to see, it's also quite playable.


And it shows many improvements from the original "Super Sprint" game; this time it's not just a matter of being faster than your opponents, you can also fire bullets at them, avoid snipers and slippery oil puddles, pass through gates, jump across broken bridges and so on... nothing special, but it does provide a better challenge.


Of course, you can also improve your cars. Try to collect as many wrenches as you can; after the race, you'll be able to spend them and improve your car with better tyres, top speed, acceleration...


And what after you've completed all the 8 levels ? Well, you start back from the first track, but this time your opponents are much tougher, there are more obstacles and you race in the opposite direction. Honestly, this shortens lastability quite a lot; I would have prefered less graphical variety but more tracks, as in "Supercars II" or "Nitro". Anyway, this is still a faithful conversion of the original arcade game.


Conclusion

This game is good, very good for a few hours. Then, after completing all the circuits twice, you'll quickly lose interest... but it's still worth a try.






Score
  • Graphics: 6
  • Sound: 6
  • Gameplay: 6
  • Overall: 6

Review Comments

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Zone Warrior

February 12, 2023 by AtariCrypt

Once again, pesky aliens are giving us Earthlings lots of grief. We previously fought them off but they managed to pinch a time machine so are using that to alter history and wreak havoc by taking crucial hostages from each period in an attempt to halt their influence. From the invention of the wheel in prehistoric times to England's King Arthur uniting Britain! And where would any of us be today without Japan and its technical wizardry? Yep, we cannot allow this - the fight is on!

Son Shu Shi

March 21, 2021 by ST Graveyard

What an accomplishment this game is. Created with such a small team, the result is really amazing. The game oozes creative passion. While the gameplay is really well balanced, it is a tough cookie, very hard from time to time with its moments of sheer frustration. As of level 3, timing becomes key. You will need to practice and learn the levels to complete this game, there are so many bad guys on screen it sometimes gets a bit hard to take.

Blood Money

April 4, 2020 by Morcar

Graphically, it's also nice on the eyes with well-defined graphics and animation. You really get the feeling that the developers put some thought and love into the game. Remember what I said about the large levels? Well these are wonderful and are very different to each other, they also scroll fairly smooth in all four directions.

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