Tiger Road

~ TIGER ROAD ~

Victor Musical Industries / Capcom / NEC

HuCard

1990

Poor Tiger Road is one of those games that have so much going for them but are considered by most players to be mediocre (or poor) because of a few catastrophic flaws.

Let's cover the good stuff first. TR's graphics are cartoony but have a certain grittiness about them that you don't often see in platformers of this sort. The music is up-tempo and catchy. Lee Wong controls pretty well (his leaping ability is particularly impressive). There are plenty of nice big stages, some of which offer multiple routes and shortcuts to take. And if you have backup RAM, your progress will be saved every step of the way.

Now, the bad stuff. The collision detection is HORRIBLE. Legendarily bad. You can't ever actually count on your hacks to hit. Meanwhile, the very quick and constantly regenerating enemies can have field days batting you around and knocking you into pits.

Also, there are "flying" stages here and there where you basically have to guide the hero through gauntlets of spikes, fireballs, and inflatable fat men. It was nice of the developers to strive for variety, but these short strips don't amount to much of anything.

I must admit that I have fun with Tiger Road thanks to the good things it has going for it. Unfortunately, the aforementioned flaws will kill the game for some people. The collision detection will seem particularly awful the first few minutes you play; count on it. If you stick with the game, though, you might end up enjoying it.