Road Fighter

Road Fighter is a mid 80s arcade racing game from the good folks at Konami. It was a pretty big hit and for me, I kind of see it as a middle ground between games like Spy Hunter and Road Blasters. It is a classic game that saw a release on pretty much everything back in the day, most notably the NES. Konami released pure gold on the NES time and time again, but how does this one stack up?

It Has An Old School Charm

Hmm, looking back now I can really see the charm that Road Fighter has. It is a very basic looking kind of game, but for 1985 standards this is really what we expected. The problem many people have with this game is that it was not actually released outside of Japan until the early 90s! This made the game look incredibly dated in comparison to the other games released at that time as a result people look back at this rather harshly. Knowing that the game is in fact from 1985 does let you appreciate the basic and old school style it has.

The sound is also very old school. There is a fun little tune before and after races, but during the races, it is just the generic car sounds you would expect.

Get To The End!

As an arcade-style racing game, Road Fighter does not exactly have a great deal going for it in terms of the gameplay. You just need to get to the end hand have the highest score possible. The problem is that everything on this road wants you to fail! If you hit another car, you start to spin. If your reflexes are quick enough you can hit the opposite direction and sometimes stop the spinning. This along with going off the track bring your racing to a halt which can be very frustrating. The most frustrating aspect of the game is the way you have to get fuel. You have fuel that will last you 99 seconds! So right from the start, you are worried about fuel. You can drive into a fuel car to get fuel, but it can be very annoying when you miss one as 99/100 which means a game over for you. That is all there really is to the gameplay, it is not bad or anything like that it is just very basic.

There is a thin line between being old school and just flat out old and I think that Road Fighter here might swing more towards the just being old end of the spectrum. The game does have some charm and had the fuel thing not been so tight and strict I think that this would have actually been a great deal more fun. If you like your NES games and want to play something a little bit more obscure, give this one a look.

Final Score: 7/10

Pros:

• It feels like an old school NES game
• It is easy to get into
• The game is a classic from Konami
• The song it plays is cool
• It can be addictive in short bursts

Cons:

• The fuel dynamic is super annoying
• Not a great deal to the game