Stunt Track Driver - Nintendo - http://maxpages.com/supern/Stunt_Truck

Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver

Game Boy Color games have come so far in terms of graphics and gameplay (we're getting Resident Evil for pete's sakes!) that one would almost forget that one of the best features of the system is its simplicity and low profile, its perceived reputation for being a toy for quick gameplay fixes. After playing 900 hours of fully-impressive 3D realtime role-playing strategy gaming, it's nice to pick up a Game Boy and play something simple and fun. The Game Boy can get away with that, and Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver is a perfect example of that. It's no portable Crazy Taxi, but the game is wild fun that doubles the excitement in two-player link-up mode.
Features:

Five favorite Hot Wheels cars.
Six tracks.
Head-to-head two-player racing.
Three types of aerial stunts.
For Game Boy and Game Boy Color
Programmed for both the Game Boy Color and the standard Game Boy, Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver (programmed by Lucky Chicken Games) hearkens back to Motocross Maniacs and the Lynx California Games. The key to the game is to whip out spins, flips, and twists to max out your speed and place first in a tournament across the game's six stages. When you land a trick, your car notches up its speed meter, and if you can nail several tricks in a row you'll get a nitro boost.

The game is very simple. In fact, that's the whole game. Racing is controlled somewhat like Excitebike in that cars can pass forward and backward on the track, and when in air you need to control the car's pitch to land flat on the wheels in these angled tracks to avoid losing speed. Unfortunately, there's little interaction with the game besides the stunt system -- enemy cars pass right through and you can't bash them off the road, there are no road obstacles or power-ups to make the game more difficult, and the different tracks are essentially the same other than some differences in number of jumps and difficulty. There's a useless brake button, which would have been much better suited for a more complex trick system or a weapon. Multiple tricks (such as linking a spin and flip for a combo) are not counted for bonus points -- you simply get one point for the spin, and one for the flip.

But like the Hot Wheels toy cars that this game patterns itself after, the plain joy of watching cars twirl and crash is a blast. Once you get into a zone of landing triple-spins every chance, the purity of arcade gameplay of the '80s flows back as you grit your teeth, your determination not to blow it making every trick that much harder. Complimenting that are the clean graphics (which look much like a Hot Wheels toy track, complete with orange straights, gray connectors, thick round edges, and rad loops-the-loops). The cars are fair representations of some of Hot Wheels' all-time favorites, and while the backgrounds are bland, they set the atmosphere while keeping the race fast and uncluttered (even the standard Game Boy is clean and easy to see).

Comments

There are a lot of things I would love to see in a sequel (weapons, a stunt ramp contest, better trick scoring, more complicated tracks), but as it is this game is pure, short-term fun. I enjoy it much more than the PlayStation equivalent, as it's a quick pick-up game. And the link-up mode, which is being skipped more and more often on the Game Boy (even after Pokémon), is a very, very welcome addition.

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Page Updated Sun Dec 31, 2000 9:12pm EST