Courier Crisis

If you had scab envy watching Puck do his daredevil delivery thang on The Real World, hold on tight for Courier Crisis, where the hits are hard and the pay won't even cover your Band-Aid bills. In this 2Xtreme-meets-D/e Hard with a Vengeance bloodbath, you're a bike courier speeding through five 3D neighbor-hoods to pick up and deliver the goods. Despite promising graphics and great sound, Courier Crisis still needs some work on the controls, which don't allow for sharp turns or quick acceleration. Who wants to pedal uphill?

For those of you who have been waiting for some environmentally sound bike-riding action, BMG Interactive is proud to present Courier Crisis. Developed by the same team that brought you Road Rash for the Sega CD, Courier Crisis features the same type of tough two-wheel gameplay in the manic world of bicycle messengers.

You bike through five levels to complete over 250 deliveries. thugs, and other urban obstacles. For purists, the game uses real BMX tricks and mountain bikes, and incorporates the streetwise sawy of real riders. Get ready, bike nuts, Courier Crisis is set to pedal its way into stores this October.

Overview

Anyone who has spent any time downtown during business hours in any major city in America has probably seen the lead characters of this game: bike-riding package couriers. These bicycle couriers shuttle packages for anyone who needs a package delivered to another building in the downtown area. In the case of Courier Crisis, you ride your bike around the city looking for packages to deliver. It is your job to see to it that the package gets to its destination safely and quickly. Your payment and employment depend on it.

In Courier Crisis, you will race against the clock to make your next pick-up and delivery. But watch out, because there are plenty of cars, trucks, people and animals that seem to have it in for bicycle couriers and would love nothing more than to see you separated from your bike. With over 250 deliveries to make, you have plenty of pedaling ahead!

Gameplay

Here is a game that has never been done before. It is best described as Road Rash on bicycles, although not as fun. Instead of beating up on other couriers, you beat up on pedestrians. This game does have a lot going for it and manages to hit the mark on some areas and miss on others.

The gameplay is very basic and quite simple. You start the game on your bike and at the top of the screen you will see a directional arrow. This arrow is leading you to your first pick-up. It is your job to find the streets that take you to the origin of the arrow -- your client -- and grab his delivery. Once you get the package, the arrow now changes to the direction of the person you are delivering to. Once again you must follow the arrow to its origin and deliver the package. The more quickly you get to your destination, the more money you will receive. Sound easy enough?

All of this is fine and dandy, but it would not be very fun if all you were doing was racing against a clock. Don't worry. For some reason, every pedestrian in town hates your guts. They don't like the way you fly down the sidewalks and weave in and out of traffic. They just plain do not like you. If you have ever seen the couriers, this is a very realistic dislike. Am I the only person who has wanted to open my car door when some little punk is flying by and I am stuck in traffic? Unfortunately, the cars do not open their doors, but the people are not shy about cracking you with purses, canes, or even Karate kicks. As if that is not enough, in certain areas you will have packs of dogs chasing you that would love to chew on your leg.

It would not be very fair if you could not defend yourself against all of these hazards, right? Not to worry. You can punch, kick, and run over people on your bike. This is the best part of the game. I have not figured out if you get any benefit or punishment for running over pedestrians, but I don't care. After playing the game for over 15 hours, I still chuckle when I get in a good kick on an unsuspecting old lady as I ride by. Sure, it is a little sick, but if she had her way she would be swinging her purse at me, so I figure it evens out. Along these same lines, I still chuckle just the same when I kick a dog that is chasing me. They have done a great job reproducing the yelping sound of a hurt dog.

As you progress through the game, you will start to accumulate cash. You can use this cash to upgrade your bike. You can get anything from a small, inexpensive model to a bike with jets mounted on the side. It will take quite a few deliveries to accumulate enough cash to buy one of the higher end bikes. Being a bicycle illiterate, I wish they would have included a brief explanation of the different bikes and what makes them better. All I had to go by was price. I just assumed that because a bike cost more, it was better. But I don't think this is always true.

You can also pull some bike tricks when busting ass through the city. For some reason, there are plenty of ramps to help you catch some big air. The list of moves you can pull off includes a Table Top, Air 360, Cross Up, Back Flip, and Spread Eagle. You will need to learn these tricks because when you have successfully pulled off a move, you are awarded with a power-up associated with that move. For example, if you pull off the Air 360, you will have more time to finish your mission. In the earlier stages this is not important, but in the later stages it is essential for progressing through the levels.

All of this stuff is fine and dandy, but Courier Crisis does have its problems. First and foremost, the gameplay gets so repetitive it almost becomes boring. Each level becomes more of the same. The only variation you really receive is that the clock speeds up, or your delivery destinations are farther away. The game needed something in between to spice things up and give it some variation. Maybe a bonus round or something -- anything to give the game some variety.

The other thing that I had a problem with was the controls. I won't say that they were unresponsive, but instead just call them weird. It was almost impossible to turn your bike and head the other direction without coming to a complete stop, which you just don't have time for. It would have been cool to have a button that would make you skid to a stop but have you facing the other direction when done. Instead you have to stop, swing the bike around (takes forever), and then start again. I found it easier to just keep heading in the same direction and try to find a cross street.

Graphics

Yuck! I think the word I am looking for is "pixelization." If you get too close to anything, it becomes distorted, ala Doom. All the buildings, cars and even people look terrible up close. From a distance they don't look that bad, but you rarely are looking at things from a distance. If they would have polished the graphics and brought them up to a 32-bit level, I thing the game would have been better -- even though we all know it is gameplay that matters.

Bottom Line

For the first few levels, Courier Crisis is a gas. After that, it runs out of steam. I think this is a great idea and could have been much more than it was. I wish the graphics were more polished, at least for the pedestrians so you could get a better view of who you are running over. I wish they had put something in to break up the levels and add some excitement. All in all, it is worthy of a rental just to run over the old lady. But once that novelty wears thin (it never completely wears off), you will start longing for more than what Courier Crisis offers.

In Courier Crisis, you take to the streets as a bike messenger in a frantic race to deliver packages and earn the almighty buck. How-ever, the job of a road daredevil is not an easy one; the streets are littered with pesky pedestrians, vicious dogs, and aggressive drivers, all of whom present safety hazards.

Cameplay takes place in a completely 3D environment with levels set in neighborhoods like Civic Center, Chinatown, and Skid Row. The best part of the game is the freedom to explore every part of the city, which enables you to uncover shortcuts that will help you shave time off your assignments. The tight controls make it easy to maneuver and perform aerial acrobatics, but the hectic cityscape is filled with hazards that often appear out of nowhere, leaving almost no time to react.

The graphics cover no new ground, though the levels are large and well-designed. Occasionally, severe pixelization and draw-in problems crop up; beyond being an eyesore, they can interfere with your negotiating obstacles. The sound is adequate and includes a rousing soundtrack marred by repetitive voices.

Overall, Courier Crisis offers decent fast-paced fun and humor. While "package delivery as game-play" isn't the most attention-grabbing concept, the game's quasi-Road Rash feel will likely be enough to lure a few curious gamers. But with such average results, we're talkin' rental all the way.