City Connection has a really odd plot. You want to paint the roads of the world to prove you've been there, and along the way dodge police cars and pink cats. Yes, pink cats in particular, but also giant spikes that shoot out of the highway. This game features a little red hatchback and its implied escape from police might belie one into thinking its a racer, but its not. This has more in common with MappyLand, a cutesy platformer than any racing.?
Your little car runs along the roads, which are often not connected and require you to jump between aerial platforms. As you drive over the road (marked out in small squares) you will fill it in white. The stage is complete only after every empty road box is white. Your hazards include the local police - who putter about aimlessly, and are the least of your worries- they don't follow you and can be dispatched with oil cans you find along the road.; the road spikes - these dangerous things often are not seen until you're right up on them. They look like a stalagmite that shoots up from the road, and last, the deadly, deadly pink cat. Its a cat that sits on the highway, oblivious to your perils. If you hit it, or any of the other objects, you lose a life. I'll go into detail later why the cat is the worst of the bunch. Lets talk some stats on this game, shall we?
Graphics: 4?
The good: Well it has cut scenes of you, the blonde racer, in between stages. They look good. The backgrounds for the stages are OK, but nothing fancy. But this was fairly early NES, so you couldn't expect it to stretch the hardware just yet. The police vehicles do change, so the English police drive vans, the French police have different cars from the Americans - its a nice touch.
The bad: There is a fair amount of things on the screen, and it suffers from some flashing objects. This is alright when its benign like an oil can, this is very bad when the object you can hardly see is the deadly pink cat.
Sound: 3
The good: The stage has different music. There are some special tones such as when you hit the cat, or when you hit the cops - you will explode.
The bad: Not much sound really, and the music seems to be one main piece with variations. Nothing memorable. Classic early NES sound, which is to say, fairly cheap.
Addictive: 5
Its odd, while there is not much memorable, it does fill that small void time waster games can be enjoyed. Its very easy to learn and dodging the hazards is more fun than painting the roads, good for some thrills I wouldn't expect from a game with this low of score. But it does provide challenge, and one can see just what city they can make it to.
Story: 4
Well it has one, although odd, its not a total loss. Why doesn't the player just get a plane ticket? Why you must be a hooligan and paint all the roads and incur police wrath is odd, but as strange, the police are often the least of your worries, despite their numbers. Too bad this road goes on forever, because...
Depth: 3
There is no ending, no secrets to unlock. You play it for score only, until you lose your last life. There are no continues. There are red balloons you can get, and enough of them will warp you. Its nice, but since the game doesn't change revisited stages for difficulty, it doesn't do much but pass a stage that might be annoying.
Difficulty: 7
This game is fairly hard, but often for the wrong reasons.
1) This is a bad one. The flickering hiding things from view is one thing.
2)The stage design is rather devious and clever, with 4 levels of platforms - the way the honda car jump up floors is not immediate, you have to build up some speed first. And often the little roads don't allow you to do that easily. So you end up stuck on the bottom floor, looking for an opening from cars and cats.
3) Nintendo Hard- And that cat. That pink freaking cat shows up nearly all the time. Its the worst, and brings to mind Nintendo Hard, where the old games are difficult due to resetting sprites- much like Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. The draw distance in the game is very short, so just traveling quickly left to right back to left can make them appear, grinning right in front of you to take them out.
Bottom line score : 5.4
This should be on a list of strangest themed games, but its no jewel from Jaleco. This kind of weird I'd come back to play this even though I know its not a great game, so the addictive quality is there - so its good if you like old school difficulty. City Connection has a really odd plot. You want to paint the roads of the world to prove you've been there, and along the way dodge police cars and pink cats. Yes, pink cats in particular, but also giant spikes that shoot out of the highway. This game features a little red hatchback and its implied escape from police might belie one into thinking its a racer, but its not. This has more in common with MappyLand, a cutesy platformer than any racing.?
Your little car runs along the roads, which are often not connected and require you to jump between aerial platforms. As you drive over the road (marked out in small squares) you will fill it in white. The stage is complete only after every empty road box is white. Your hazards include the local police - who putter about aimlessly, and are the least of your worries- they don't follow you and can be dispatched with oil cans you find along the road.; the road spikes - these dangerous things often are not seen until you're right up on them. They look like a stalagmite that shoots up from the road, and last, the deadly, deadly pink cat. Its a cat that sits on the highway, oblivious to your perils. If you hit it, or any of the other objects, you lose a life. I'll go into detail later why the cat is the worst of the bunch. Lets talk some stats on this game, shall we?
Graphics: 4?
The good: Well it has cut scenes of you, the blonde racer, in between stages. They look good. The backgrounds for the stages are OK, but nothing fancy. But this was fairly early NES, so you couldn't expect it to stretch the hardware just yet. The police vehicles do change, so the English police drive vans, the French police have different cars from the Americans - its a nice touch.
The bad: There is a fair amount of things on the screen, and it suffers from some flashing objects. This is alright when its benign like an oil can, this is very bad when the object you can hardly see is the deadly pink cat.
Sound: 3
The good: The stage has different music. There are some special tones such as when you hit the cat, or when you hit the cops - you will explode.
The bad: Not much sound really, and the music seems to be one main piece with variations. Nothing memorable. Classic early NES sound, which is to say, fairly cheap.
Addictive: 5
Its odd, while there is not much memorable, it does fill that small void time waster games can be enjoyed. Its very easy to learn and dodging the hazards is more fun than painting the roads, good for some thrills I wouldn't expect from a game with this low of score. But it does provide challenge, and one can see just what city they can make it to.
Story: 4
Well it has one, although odd, its not a total loss. Why doesn't the player just get a plane ticket? Why you must be a hooligan and paint all the roads and incur police wrath is odd, but as strange, the police are often the least of your worries, despite their numbers. Too bad this road goes on forever, because...
Depth: 3
There is no ending, no secrets to unlock. You play it for score only, until you lose your last life. There are no continues. There are red balloons you can get, and enough of them will warp you. Its nice, but since the game doesn't change revisited stages for difficulty, it doesn't do much but pass a stage that might be annoying.
Difficulty: 7
This game is fairly hard, but often for the wrong reasons.
1) This is a bad one. The flickering hiding things from view is one thing.
2)The stage design is rather devious and clever, with 4 levels of platforms - the way the honda car jump up floors is not immediate, you have to build up some speed first. And often the little roads don't allow you to do that easily. So you end up stuck on the bottom floor, looking for an opening from cars and cats.
3) Nintendo Hard- And that cat. That pink freaking cat shows up nearly all the time. Its the worst, and brings to mind Nintendo Hard, where the old games are difficult due to resetting sprites- much like Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. The draw distance in the game is very short, so just traveling quickly left to right back to left can make them appear, grinning right in front of you to take them out.
Bottom line score : 5.4
This should be on a list of strangest themed games, but its no jewel from Jaleco. This kind of weird I'd come back to play this even though I know its not a great game, so the addictive quality is there - so its good if you like old school difficulty. |
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| ID: 1058059 | 843 Words
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ended the review. 
