As featured in Retrogaming Times Monthly issue #76, September 2010.

Of the ten cartridges that were released in the United States for the Tomy Tutor computer, among those familiar with the hardware, more often than not there is one game that rises above all others.  Even among most introduced to the hardware for the first time, that same game becomes the one that gets the most play, the one that is most remembered from the experience of gaming on the hardware.  That same game was exclusive to the Tomy Tutor, providing a unique title for a unique system and becoming the killer application for the platform among classic gaming collectors.  That game is Traffic Jam and it's reason enough to own a Tomy Tutor computer.

The premise is fairly simple, a city is shown from an overhead view and is laid out like any classic arcade maze game.  The player controls a car that is always moving forward unless resting against a maze barrier, just like Pac-Man.  Maze navigation is accomplished with the control disc on the Joy Controller or the Tutor Joy Stick.  Your car leaves a blue streak behind it, the objective is to travel the entire maze turning the roads from their initial black to blue.  Of course the game wouldn't be very entertaining unless there were some enemies and in Traffic Jam there are plenty of obstacles to be dealt with.  Three purple drone cars drive around the city, attempting to crash into your car when they get near.  They never move fast enough to close in on you but the speed of your car and the close quarters of the city streets make them a major collision hazard.  Additionally the drone cars can turn into steam rollers which clear off your blue streets, turning them back to black and requiring you to drive over them again.  To counter the drone cars, your car has a secret weapon in the form of emergency hazards.  Turning your hazards on by pressing either the SL or SR button on the controller makes your car temporarily invincible.  Driving into a drone car with hazards active will stun the drone for a short time and award bonus points.  Even more useful, if you drive into a drone steam roller with your hazards active, the steam roller will instantly revert back to a standard drone car in addition to becoming stunned and awarding bonus points.  Hazards are limited and can be replenished by driving over oil cans that randomly appear around the maze but they only stick around for a short time.  There is a trade off to this invincibility however, as when hazards are active your car will not put down its blue line.  The final obstacle is surprisingly the most dangerous - roadblocks.  Roadblocks look like a big asterisk and randomly appear on the streets.  When first revealed, a roadblock will flash to give warning and then become solid.  While they can be driven over when flashing, once solid hitting a roadblock will crash your car and cost a life.  Hitting a roadblock with hazards active will still end in a crash and a lost life.  Lastly five letters that spell out "BONUS" are littered throughout the city, collecting them in order will award big bonus points.  After covering an entire grid of city streets in blue, the next stage begins.

Traffic Jam plays a little like a mix between Pac-Man and Crush Roller / Make Trax.  However the game I most closely associate Traffic Jam with is one of my all time favorites, City Connection.  When I first played City Connection on the NES it felt like a side view version of Traffic Jam to me.  Thinking about it more, it's probably why I enjoy City Connection so much.  Maybe the game is a little more like Rally-X but instead of picking up flags you have to cover every spot in the maze, the "BONUS" letters taking the place of the flags.  However the use of hazards to disable the enemy vehicles rather than a smoke screen works a little more like Pac-Man's energizers.  In the end I suppose one could say it's a solid mix of the most entertaining aspects of many classic games of the era, which lend themselves to a wonderful time and a game that truly stands on its own.

Graphics are sharp and detailed with bright and vibrant colors.  Although each stage is made up of the same graphic blocks of grass areas and buildings, there are many different layouts that make the city streets seem just random enough.  Every even numbered stage splits the city in half vertically with a river in between and a moving bridge to get between the two sides.  Even with the layout changes the game technically only has two different screens, with and without the water and bridge.  Still, the challenge does progressively increase as the drone cars will turn into steam rollers more frequently on the higher levels.  A few stages in it's not uncommon for a couple of the drones to remain as steam rollers for the majority of the level and roadblocks become far more dense as well.  Player car movement is smooth however the drone cars move in flashing increments but there aren't any surprises when getting near one.

Traffic Jam has by far the best soundtrack of any game on the Tomy Tutor hardware with a memorable background tune that plays during the entire game.  Completing the BONUS pickup or completing a stage also triggers a unique little musical fanfare in addition to unique music for beginning a drive as well as losing a car.  Everything makes a sound and each sound is played in a different tone.  This means a flashing oil can, a roadblock just appearing, and a drone moving around as a steam roller all sound just a little differently and will all be audible at the same time, taking turns of course.  All the sound effects play while the music plays in the background, it's really cool to have so much going on in a Tutor game.  The hazard activation sound is similar to a siren and the default Tutor explosion sound is used in the event of a crash, which works out perfectly in this case.

While the enjoyment of most Tomy Tutor games fall strictly into the eye of the beholder, Traffic Jam is simply an excellent game for anyone.  The great thing about the title is it seems to be one of the more common releases for the platform and I usually see it included with the computer itself when one comes up for sale.  I suppose a good part of that is probably because of the quality of the game, it was the game to have if you had the computer.  Without a doubt Traffic Jam is one of the best games the Tomy Tutor has to offer, if not the best outright.
 

"InsaneDavid" also covers all types of video gaming at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi

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