I like driving in my car!
Anyone
who enjoys retro videogames (and I assume you wouldn't be reading
this if you didn't) knows that the weirdest and wackiest games usually come
from Japan – this is just considered a fact of life. You can always
rely on the Japanese to produce a game with a bizarre storyline,
strange characters and settings, and crazy game mechanics that will
have you looking vacantly at the screen and thinking, WTF? ('text speak' purely used there to appeal to the 'youth market')
Banishing
Racer isn't as far out as many titles, though it will still have you
giving your Gameboy strange looks and raised eyebrows. The premise of
a 2D platforming game staring a car as the main character may seem
like another wacky idea but, by the time of Banishing Racer's
release, it had already been done before – most notably in the 1981
coin-op title Jump Bug, and later on in titles such as City
Connection (1985) and Core's 1990 Amiga title Carvup. While these last two
involved colouring in platforms by driving over them - with the aim
being to colour the entire level - Banishing Racer simply tasks you with getting from A to B – the
standard platform game drill i'm sure you are all familiar with.
Starting
off in the wheels of a tubby little car (I am unsure what model he is
based on, but seeing as he looks as though he was drawn by a child
and seems incapable of moving at a decent speed, I am going to guess
Smart car or a Fiat Panda) you must simply move right, avoiding the
other vehicular enemies in order to reach the exit sign. He moves
fairly slowly but can, thankfully, boost with the tap of the A button. This can be done both on the ground and in
the air, meaning you have some degree of control over your jumps.
Enemies are destroyed with the age old head stomp manoeuvre, with
large foes such as lorries taking a few more bounces to destroy. Bouncing off 4 enemies in a row awards players with a 1up, as well as
a sense of minor satisfaction. After completing the simple first
stage, the game switches to a Balloon Kid style level, in which you
must repeatedly tap the jump button to stay airborne, avoiding
parrots. Quite why your car sprouts wings for this stage, or why he
has angered a flock of colourful birds, is unclear – it's just
another one of those eyebrow-raising moments provided by this oddball title.
Starting
in San Francisco, and moving on to Las Vegas, it would appear
Banishing Racer is opting to treat us to a classic American Road
trip. Not that the game sticks to any logic as the first boss battle
in San Fran is with a dinosaur. More suitable, although no less
ridiculous, are the enemies on the Las Vegas stage, which include
coin spitting slot machines. Upon completing a level, the hero starts
wiping his head while a fairy stands next to him clapping, but by
this stage you are used to weirdness and don't even bother to
question why the main character has suddenly become 3 times his
original size (the same happens when you die).
OK, so Banishing Racer is actually a bit rubbish - it slugs along at a snail's pace, is extremely basic and will only hold your attention for one or two goes at the most, but it's a quirky that has a lot of curiosity value in its weirder moments and will provide a few minutes entertainment.
Title : Banishing Racer
Developer : Jaleco Entertainment
Year : 1991
System : Gameboy
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