Dirt Racer (SNES review)

Developer: MotiveTime Ltd
Publisher: Elite Systems Ltd
Released: 1995

Dirt Racer is a rally game that was only released in Europe and it's powered by the Super FX GSU-1 chip.

In League mode there's three Divisions that consist of nine tracks each; to win you'll need to beat one CPU racer per match in an attempt to top the overall leaderboard. Cup mode consists of a knockout tournament across 16 matches so if you lose a race you're eliminated. Across both modes you're only allowed to crash and explode nine times per race otherwise you'll be disqualified. The first thing you'll notice is that the pop-in is so severe that it's almost impossible to know when a corner is coming up as you're given no time to react; even worse, there's no display to show where you are on the track and the game rarely boasts visual cornering clues until it's too late. As a result you end up crashing many times or driving around aimlessly trying to figure out where you're actually supposed to go! The controls are incredibly sensitive as all three vehicles have no weight to them and tend to spin out despite only light taps on the d-pad. The frame-rate is also very choppy which makes for some unresponsive controls and frequent over-steer. Once you try to pick up speed again it takes forever to get going and within seconds you'll hit a randomly placed rock, crash into the scenery which appears from nowhere or be blindsided by the overly aggressive CPU opponents who belong in a Destruction Derby game! The tracks are very similar to each other with boring scenery, pixelated textures, dull colours and no distinctive features. The music has some decent instrument samples (especially the drums) but overall the songs sound like a budget Commodore Amiga platformer.

Dirt Racer is a barely playable mess and it's almost as if Elite Systems released an alpha version without even bothering with the testing process. The result is a racing game that's utterly laughable and you're better off sticking to the more polished Stunt Race FX instead (1994, SNES).

Random trivia: MotiveTime Ltd developed two other Super Nintendo games, Dragon's Lair (1993) and The Adventures of Dr. Franken (1993).

Dragon's Lair (NES review)

Developer: MotiveTime
Publisher: CSG Imagesoft
Released: 1990

Dragon's Lair is a side-scrolling platformer that was originally released in 1983 as a Full-Motion-Video LaserDisc game.

It consists of seven stages and your mission is to rescue Princess Daphne from a fire-breathing dragon called Singe. Your main weapon is a low-powered Dagger but along the way you can pick up Axes and Fireballs that destroy enemies with fewer shots. Right from the start the game is a chore to play due to the incredibly clunky controls. Each stage requires fast reflexes to counteract the respawning enemies and deadly traps that can kill you with one hit; however, the controls are so delayed that it's impossible to quickly move from a crouch to a standing position or vice versa. By the time your character reacts to your inputs you've likely already been killed by an enemy projectile and sent back to the start of the level. Your character sprite is large but this works against the game due to the tight quarters you're constantly battling in; as a result your hit box is huge and you'll die often. You're also frequently expected to be a mind-reader and know where the cracks are in the floor; if you suddenly cross one while in the crouching position you'll fall down with no time to recover. Another annoyance is that if you don't know which floor to exit on the end of stage elevator you'll be forced to replay previous levels which is maddening! Once you reach the final stages precise timing is required to jump on moving platforms and crawl under enemy projectiles. It's utterly impossible due to the broken controls but the worst offender is the final boss who can shoot fireballs quicker than you can react. The sprite animation is nice but the backgrounds are full of generic textures. The music is repetitious but there is an option to turn it off.

Dragon's Lair is an interesting attempt at moving an animated FMV game into a side-scroller but it's miserable to play due to the utterly horrendous controls. As it stands it's completely unplayable and easily one of the worst games on the NES.

Random trivia: Although MotiveTime only developed one NES game they did code both Dragon's Lair (1993) and The Adventures of Dr. Franken (1993) on the SNES.