Difficult but Rewarding
User Rating: 7.9 | Hard Drivin' GEN
In the history of driving simulators, for any platform, Hard Drivin' is no joke. This goes for the Genesis and the arcade version it was modelled after. Imagine putting the player onto a 3D stunt track and giving them a car that (while a little on the slow side) obeys pretty closely the laws of physics. Back in 1991 this was a new concept to gamers who prior to then had become accustomed to much more forgiving arcade-style driving games. As the title clearly suggests there is no forgiveness here. Screw up and your car is totaled. Hard Drivin' is pure and simple a game about controlling your vehicle and obeying the limitations of real life physics. I wouldn't be surprised if this game were classified a 'Cult Classic' because I'm sure it turned off a lot of people for simply being too difficult. But for those willing to stick with it and learn how far you can push the car before spinning out of control or hitting a jump at the wrong angle, you are rewarded with a feeling of accomplishment that very few other games have been able to provide. And the best part is that learning to drive the stunt car is actually fun (wait till you try using the stick shift). The brilliance of this game is that with a little effort & concentration you can go out onto the stunt track and do better each time...little by little, until finally WOO HOOO! You NAILED the loop! I'm telling you, coming off that loop for the first time is a thrill to behold and I don't mean flying off it like you most likely will the first several times. It's such a great sense of accomplishment, which then drives you to push it further on to the next obstacle.
You will eventually get to the point of actually completing the track and it's then that a practically whole new game opens up - competing against and beating the Ghost Racer. In fact, the Ghost Racer is really your own car from previous races and the goal is to beat your previous time by going head to head with it in real time (that is you'll actually see it on the track with you). Soon it becomes an intense challenge as you try not only to stay alive, but beat yourself and continuously improve your time. It's an intense challenge, but more importantly a lot of fun, not to mention the replay value it adds to the game.
3D graphics were still in their infancy when Hard Drivin' was released on the Genesis (in fact the SNES wouldn't even have been able to pull this one off), but despite that the developers did an outstanding job porting this over. I'm still amazed at how well they pulled it off. This one's definitely a classic and for those who've never played it I reccomend giving it a try. By the way...watch out for the cow.
