Victory Run

~ VICTORY RUN ~

Hudson Soft / NEC

HuCard

1989

I bought this one way back in 1989, but it wasn't until many years later that I finally managed to beat it. I didn't play it much when I was a kid because it seemed pretty difficult, and I didn't play it much during the years that followed because it just didn't seem like a very good game. When I finally gave it another go, I not only beat it but also, lo and behold, enjoyed it.

I think it was on the TurboList reviews page that I saw someone compare driving the car in this game to driving a tank. That comparison is actually fairly accurate. It takes some practice to get a good handle on the clunky Victory Run vehicle, and it doesn't help that the other drivers are such bastards and there are patches of crap littered about most of the tracks. Also, there are very few tunes to accompany the racing, and the stage graphics for the first few tracks are dull and redundant. (And my biggest gripe when I was younger was that your car has to slow down during the final straight-away in each stage, costing valuable extra seconds to run off the clock.)

But when I reached the point where I was controlling the vehicle well enough to steer clear of all the crap patches and other vehicles, I was able to advance past the first few boring stages, and then things got fun. The final few levels are such a step up visually from the first bunch that it's hard to believe the same designers were involved with both batches. The green fields in Stage 6, the sky in Stage 7, the beach in Stage 8... it's all beautiful stuff.

And the game has always had a number of things going for it that make it stand out among other old racing titles. Budgeting spare parts, considering terrain type (and the effect it has on gear switching), and overcoming limited visibility during nighttime stretches are enjoyable elements that add a bit of complexity to the basic "beat the clock" formula. And I always get a kick out of the rounds of applause that are given when you can complete a stage without using any extra time. To top it all off, the little ending scene is pretty funny.

Frankly, I'm probably being a little too positive here; sure, the game has a lot to offer thanks to all those cool aspects and late-stage visual heroics, but the actual driving calls for some grueling practice sessions. Still, if you dismissed the game due to early-level boredom, I recommend giving it another shot because of the fun that can be had later on. (And it's worth noting that the time limits during the last few stages are really quite lenient.) It's like the Astralius team worked on the dull stages and the Tengai Makyou team on the good ones.