Cgrundertow Combat Cars for Sega Genesis Video Game Review

Before the company went defunct in 1999, Accolade published some pretty popular games. Their baseball franchise Hardball! was a BFD in the late eighties, as was their Jack Nicklaus golf series and the basketball game Charles Barkley: Shut Up and Jam. They did the Bubsy series, they did Test Drive...Accolade put out a lot of games. Obviously, some rounded the corner better than others. Combat Cars was developed and published by Accolade back in 1994 for the SEGA Genesis. In terms of categorization, this is a top-down racer that adds weapons to the mix. In terms of the experience, it’s a pain in the *** that adds *** to the mix. But you know, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s awful. I had absolutely no fun with Combat Cars, but that’s only because it’s well beyond my capabilities as a mediocre gamer. This game is just unbelievably hard, and what’s more, perfection is the only acceptable outcome. If you don’t get first place, you lose. Game over, chump. Add your stupid name to your stupid score. So if you’re not really good at video games, just forget Combat Cars. You’ll never see anything beyond the first course. It’s definitely not a game you can pick up and have fun with. This thing demands your time. If you want to succeed at Combat Cars, you have to memorize every single turn of every single track. And frankly, even then...the odds are freaking against you. That’s because the game doesn’t really control all that well. Steering feels very loose, and that doesn’t make an ideal partner for the game’s difficulty. If you fall behind in the race, even a bit, you’re probably screwed. That means going off the course, even for a second, is a mistake from which there really is no recovery. And I played on easy. I think there’s probably an interesting racer beneath all the frustration, but the game’s chest-beating difficulty really seems at odds with its design. I mean, when a racer with bombs and freaking laser beams expects you not to f*ck up...that’s ridiculous. That’s like expecting to play Mario Kart and not to get screwed by the guy in last place. There are 24 courses. There’s co-op, but no one wanted to play with me. There’s a blonde you can buy upgrades from after you beat a level, but if you’re the kind of person who thinks being skilled at video games is a trait worth bragging about...it might be for you.