Victory Run (TG-16) Review

An average driving game that lacks any options.

Hop in your, what looks like, Porsche 911 and get ready to go run the 13,000 km Paris to Dakar road rally. Because you’re running a rally, it really isn't a racing game. Since it doesn’t matter what your ranking is, the only objects of this game are to finish all eight stages and get a better time. And since it can’t save any data, you’re going to have to write down your time somewhere if you care to try to set a new personal best.

Gameplay

For what’s included, Victory Run is a fun driving game. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to what is actually included. There is only one difficulty. You have only one car. Since it’s the Paris to Dakar rally, there is only one course, broken into 8 stages. The only option you have, other than entering your initials, is how many spare parts you want to bring along. The choice of how many of 5 different parts to bring with you is an interesting idea, except that the parts don’t wear down very fast, so as long as you bring 2 or 3 of each and 4+ tires, you will have a hard time actually running out since you can bring 20 total.

Once you get to racing, this game is somewhat difficult. If you’re not used to using a manual transmission, you’ll have to learn since there is no automatic in this game. Completing a couple of the stages is dependent on correct shifting, so a choice of an automatic doesn’t really make sense. One thing that does make it a bit easier is that there is only one traffic pattern – every time you play, the vehicles will appear at the exact same locations. There is a nice mix of road and desert stages, with a “savannah” stage mixed in, to keep the 8 stages somewhat interesting. A nice feature is that you start with a reserve time, so if you finish within the target time on any stage, the difference is added to your reserve.

The driving mechanics are solid. However, many of the turns are rather hard to figure out when they start, end, or how sharp it’s going to be.

Sound

There are only three or four different tunes, and you don’t have a choice. The music didn’t bother me. The road sounds are fine – engine revving sounds like an engine revving, tires squealing sounds like tires squealing, etc.

Graphics

The graphics are comparable to anything else released at the time (1989). There are no slowdown issues. Except for the opening stage in Paris where the Eiffel Tower and other buildings are shown, there really isn’t any scenery in the distance since a large chunk of the race is through a desert. I’m not usually paying attention to the scenery when I’m racing, so this really doesn’t even matter to me. Vehicles look decent. However, some of the vehicles do seem to take up more space than it seems they should, especially the trucks.

Summary

If you’re looking at a driving game to pick up and play to kill a little free time, this is a fun option. However, the lack of options of any kind makes this nothing more than that. If you are able to finish the rally, it will only take about 20 minutes total. A second or third rally would add to this game immensely. Trying to set a new personal best on the same course will not keep you coming back to this game.

Overall: 5/10