My car sucks too!

GAME OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
VICTORY RUN
(Hudson Soft, 1989)

Introduction and Story:

Although there are tons of shooters like Ordyne and Psychosis for the Turbografx-16 (maybe too many), there are not too many driving games for the system for some odd reason. For example; I can only name three other ones off the bat: the rather innovative Final Lap Twin, the rather annoying Chase H.Q., the super mega boring Moto Roader and that's pretty much it so if you like virtual car crashes and all that stuff you don't have a lot of options on this classic machine here.

There was another one though called Victory Run and it just so happened to be the premier 2 Meg racing title for the Turbo so it is one of the easier games to find for the system (or via download on the Nintendo Wii virtual console or something like it). Yeah, the game may not look like much since it looks a lot like tons of other popular arcade style racers like Out Run or Rad Racer but don't be fooled because there's a lot under the hood and Victory Run is surprisingly a rather deep driving sim right here.

The game play and bottomline:

Just like any driving game you try to make to the finish line in the fastest time possible. Sadly, it's not going to be that easy because every vehicle you could imagine is in your $^%&ing way. There are not only other cars trying to stop your progress but there's strange things like guys on motorbikes to even giant cargo trucks. Other then some familiar looks though, Victory Run has a different and interesting concept. The game play is very difficult because your car can receive damage in five areas and this vehicle must survive the drive down 8 tough levels. If you continue to drive while while your engines are wore down for example then you are in serious trouble here. This is not your typical arcade style racer: Victory Run is more of a simulation.

Let's talk about the graphics here...... yeah, not too good. The colours are nice and the detail isn't bad in some spots but the frame rate looks very chunky compared to Sega's silky smooth Out Run (arcade version of course) and that game was already a few years old when Victory Run came out in 1989. The music is slightly better at least but I wish there was more then just three of them. In the end though I still really liked Victory Run here. The fact that you have to worry about the different parts of your vehicle really adds a element of challenge I haven't seen before in other racers. On the rally tracks here you also have to be careful wrecking the car's suspension if you drive in the fourth gear so I'll give some major points to Victory Run's originality. Sure, it's not perfect but I found myself coming back to this racer quite often and I wish it had a sequel. I don't think that's going to happen but the game still rocks in my opinion.

Here is my 8 minute video review of Victory Run too! Warning: there is some swearing in it:

Conclusion:
600 points on the Nintendo Wii VICTORY RUN overall rating: 63/100 Find Victory Run on eBay here! For 1 player only* graphics: 5/10 sound: 6/10 gameplay: 8/10 replay: 7/10 StarSoldier1 (Ryan Genno) 2009 Other Games of the Month