Knight Rider: The Game
Score: 40% ESRB: Not Rated Publisher: Hudson Soft Developer: Hudson Soft Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Mission-Based Driving
Graphics & Sound: I'm surprised at how many of my childhood memories involve Knight Rider. There was a the KITT Big Wheel, the "plastic" leather jacket I just knew was the same one Michael Knight wore, and my dad insisting the family Toyota had a Turbo Boost option whenever we went up a bridge. So for me, it's a license that deserves a good videogame adaption. The franchise is no stranger to the medium, but nearly all have failed to adequately capture Michael and KITT's adventures. Add Knight Rider: The Game to the list. The best aspects of Knight Rider's presentation are show clips peppered throughout the game. Whenever one of KITT's features is activated, a clip from the show plays. Drop oil slick or engage Silent Mode and you'll see a clip showing KITT deploying it from the show. I'm normally against games that do this, but it adds much needed style to otherwise bland visuals. Outside clips from the show, the only other noteworthy element is the theme song. Driving around in-game is awkward, but hearing the synth-enhanced beat from the intro at least makes it sound fun.
Gameplay: Knight Rider: The Game pulls mission elements directly from the show. I won't even pretend to act like Knight Rider's plots were anything special (except for KARR episodes), and Knight Rider doesn't attempt to make the game's missions any more than they were. However, it never makes any attempt to break them out of by-now clichéd driving missions. Escort this guy, outrun that guy, tail someone else. Missions are never incredibly interesting, nor do they work well for short play sessions. Some last a little longer than they should. The mission times themselves aren't too bad, but when you factor in the amount of time dedicated to hunting for locations on the map or trying to figure out how to efficiently steer KITT at high speed, they seem to last forever. Because of the nature of mission objectives, you'll spend more time looking at the in-game map than the game screen. That is, if you can make out what the objective wants to you do. Mission briefs tend to leave out important details, leaving you with vague concepts and little clue as to why you failed a mission.
Difficulty: All missions are top-down affairs based around finding locations on a map and driving to them. This is harder than it sounds. The map isn't incredibly helpful and it's impossible to steer KITT in a straight line without bumping into something, let alone corners. Although KITT is a super car, even curbs pose a major problem. KITT takes damage with every hit, but at least he can take a beating - and he will. Missions usually require finding a point on the map and traveling to it. Sometimes you have to evade enemies, who will magnetize to KITT's bumper and refuse to let go. They'll even manage to tail you after a dose of oil slick or any of KITT's other evasive features. Tailing people is outright frustrating. If you get too close, you lose. It's not an uncommon fail state for this sort of mission, but then again you're usually not dealing with awkward controls.
Game Mechanics: Controls are an outright nightmare. KITT accelerates automatically, leaving you with the option of tapping a brake icon to slow him down. You have to do this a lot when trying to steer. It's an uncomfortable set-up and typically leads to KITT running into everything. Engaging Pursuit Mode rockets KITT, but that only makes steering that much harder. I'm not sure where the steering mechanic came from, but it doesn't work. The concept involves rubbing your thumb left and right over a tiny steering wheel icon. It doesn't sound difficult, but doesn't work. I'm surprised I managed to get as far as I did in the game with it. Trying to access upgrades is just a clunky. As you complete missions, new upgrades unlock and added to the on-screen menu. By the time you unlock everything, the screen is overloaded with items. It's already hard enough to see with the pulled-in camera view; the added pieces don't help. Once you get over the initial jolt of excitement from hearing the familiar theme song or watching a clip, the fun drops like a KARR off a cliff.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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