Hard Drivin' feels like a great example for a touchy subject among a few of my gaming circles, "does a game age? Or was it just as good as the day it came out?".

Obviously it depends and not everything is black or white, but hilariously I actually think Hard Drivin' aged better for myself after I went back to it. When I originally played the Genesis version back on the Sega Channel (yes I had that) all I remembered was constantly crashing and not being able to control the car at all. For a long while I remembered it as being one of the worst games I played on the console, despite the extraordinary 3D graphics that were cutting edge at the time. It turns out it wasn't so much the game being shit, so much as it was just that I was a shit driver.

Don't get me wrong, the frame rate is low and hits peak powerpoint presentation levels at pretty much the worst time, which is while you're trying to go through the loop-de-loop on the stunt portion of the track, but for the most part I found some enjoyment here even if it was only for ten minutes tops.

That's where the real problem comes in, the lack of really anything to do. There aren't any other tracks to drive on and there aren't any other cars to drive with (not that you'd tell since it's first-person only). You just have the base track with the fork that leads to either the speed or stunt portion, and maybe you'll get to race against a ghost racer named "Phantom Photon" who must've died flying off the loop-de-loop and was buried under the barn nearby.

This game is nowhere near as bad as I remember it being, but the lack of content and the lack of sense of speed due to the low frame rate are ultimately what keep it from being as fun as other racers during this time period. In the Arcades in 1989 it was fine, but spending money on this game for the Genesis probably wasn't a great idea at least at full price, especially when stuff like F-Zero was starting to come out, which IMO was more fun.

I'm sure there's one guy out there who disagrees, props to them I guess.

Reviewed on Apr 16, 2022


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