Road Blasters review - Nintendo Entertainment System

It's back to the future in this all-action driving game for the Nintendo. Set in a period of lawlessness and anarchy (sounds good to us), you must complete fifty levels of driving to get to Sunset Strip.

Of course this is not as easy as a trip down to your local Tesco. There are other cars on the road intent on putting an end to your jaunt, to say nothing of the mines, toxic waste, and gun emplacements who would just love to ruin your day (sounds like Southend seafront to me - JR).

Despite all this, fuel is your biggest worry: it decreases at a frightening speed and can only be replaced in two ways: complete half or all of the level, for which you are rewarded extra fuel, or collect the fuel pods that periodically appear - and seem to be moving at 150 mph!

A helicopter flies over at the beginning of each level and delivers special goodies such as nitro boost and even cruise missiles. These make life easier, but it's a long haul through the barren wasteland, and you need all your skill to succeed!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

I was addicted to this game at first, but I must admit the interest's wearing off now. The basic idea is great, and lots of fun, but having 50 levels is not very exciting when they're all pretty much the same. It's all very easy, but if you're new to games, and speed and shooting is your thing, you might find this fun - it gives an excellent feeling of speed. Anyone else, however, should heed the words of the ancient Peruvian saying: try before you buy!

I liked arcade Roadblasters a lot, but I'm afraid this Nintendo conversion is a b-i-g disappointment. It looks like Roadblasters (albeit with very fuzzy graphics), and it even sounds like Roadblasters (but without the speech). But it certainly doesn't play like Roadblasters. The original coin-op was challenging and addictive - this version certainly isn't. It's incredibly easy, and I finished the game on my second go with over 1,500,000 points! And once you've completed the game, there's nothing to draw you back to it.