As featured in Retrogaming Times Monthly issue #15, August 2005.

So far most of the games I've looked at have either been some of the most popular NES games Tengen or some of their more unknown ports.  However this time I've decided to reacquaint myself with the NES version of one of my all time favorite coin-ops, Road Runner.  Based upon the classic Warner Bros. cartoons Road Runner puts the player in control of the fast running bird in its natural cartoon habitat - endlessly trying to escape becoming a meal for Wile E. Coyote.  It's sort of like Pac-Man spliced with a side scroller.  Things begin with the Road Runner fleeing from Wile E. and picking up bird seed along the way.  Bird seed is picked up by simply running over it, if the Road Runner passes by five piles of bird seed without eating them the seed meter becomes depleted and the Road Runner becomes too week to evade Wile E. Coyote.  If Wile E. catches the Road Runner a life is lost.  Obstacles are littered along the roadway that will either slow the Road Runner down or cause yet another life to be lost.  The objective is to make it from one end of the stage to the other without being caught or killed, bonuses are awarded for picking up chains of bird seed or causing Wile E. to get caught up in the obstacles along the road.  The game is extremely simple to pick up but is very frenzied as Wile E. is always hot on your tail.

This is an easy port to review since it's done perfectly.  Nearly every last detail from the arcade version makes it over into the NES home port.  In the arcade the whole game had the look of hand drawn animation and that visual look and feel has been translated well onto the home hardware.  Play control is exactly the same, the directional pad controls movement and the A button makes Road Runner jump.  Although the basic control is spot on, in the arcade the speed of Road Runner was variable but this isn't missed in the NES version.  Sound is excellent and the effects and music from the arcade are faithfully recreated however their play order is slightly different.  Just the same the game begins with the William Tell March on the first stage, Flight of the Bumble Bee on the second and so forth.  Presentation is top notch, nearly every screen from startup to game over is nicely recreated right down to the seed meter atop the screen and the shortcut cave at the start, which allows you to continue at the farthest level reached in the previous play.  All of the different devices Wile E. picks up to chase down the Road Runner carry over to the NES version as well, from rocket skates to pogo sticks.  The game really does have the feel of being ripped out of the cartoon even today.

If there's one problem with Road Runner it's that it gets repetitive pretty quickly.  Although new routes and obstacles come into play in each stage which mixes up the challenge it still remains the same basic idea of running to the left, avoiding obstacles, staying a step ahead of Wile E. and eating bird seed.  Some of the routes require nothing more than solid memorization to be able to zip through them quickly so after you get them down the game can become too easy.  Thankfully since Wile E. stays so close you always have something to do and have to keep your reflexes peak.  In the arcade the game was a quarter muncher, at least for me anyway, so being able to play it at home was a welcome development back when this cartridge was released.  It's not for everybody but it is something different and can be picked up complete for a fair price now days.  Not as complex as Road Runner's Death Valley Rally on the SNES but still a great game and yet another absolutely solid Tengen NES port.
 

"InsaneDavid" also runs a slowly growing gaming site at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi

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