Guest Review: Days Of Thunder

Having written over 125 posts on this blog so far, I thought it was time that you hear from someone else for a review. As today's game is a NASCAR title for NES, who better to take a look at the game than my friend; NASCAR enthusiast and gamer, Adam Johnson? In addition to introducing me to this particular game he's got a couple of Youtube videos featuring gameplay from it, so without further ado;

Game: Days Of Thunder

Console: Nintendo Entertainment System

Developer: Beam Software

Release Date: 1990

I have a confession to make: I'm one of the few people born in Western Europe who actually likes NASCAR. But it could easily have been so different.

One of the first racing games I ever played purported to be a representation of NASCAR in virtual form, bringing all the visceral action to your living room. But all I remember feeling whilst playing it as an 8-year-old was; boredom, frustration, more boredom, confusion, what am I supposed to be doing, what the hell is this garbage, sod this, throw cartridge across room and play Super Mario Bros instead.

When a game literally lives up to the most popular insult hurled at NASCAR - 'ITS JUST REDNECKS TURNING LEFT!!' - then you know you've got a dire game on your hands.

The game is a movie tie-in to the famously cheesy film, so based on the testosterone packed Top-Gun-on-wheels source material, there's potential for two kinds of game to emerge; either a racing simulator like the primitive 8-bit world had never seen, or an arcade style crashfest.

I can only assume that they aimed for the former and missed by miles.

You play as the main character, Cole Trickle, although beyond a cutscene before every race the connection is tenuous at best. You could easily be playing the game as a trained monkey taking part in a scientific experiment - which given the chronically repetitive gameplay and visuals is actually quite plausible.

Days of Blunder goes for a 3D-scrolling type effect with the track which actually works better than the 'Outrun' style common amongst most 8-bit videogames of the time, which felt more like you were sat on a kid's toy car in a supermarket as moving scenery was fired at your face. 

So at least this game actually feels like you are driving a fast car around a track, in a sort of Micro Machines way. But that's about it. The tracks are bland bowls with no grandstands, scenery or anything to even differentiate them from each other bar the number of times you turn left. Yup, turns out NASCAR really is nothing but turning left a few times if this game to be believed. And you know a game is in dire straights (no pun intended) when the only notable difference in setting is the changing colour of the sky (from blue to lurid pink, making everything look like a boring acid trip).

But at least the game is challenging, right?

Yes, but only because the controls feel like they were coded by someone who doesn't actually know how a car works. And has clearly never seen a NASCAR race in their life.

Release the accelerator button, and the car doesn't slow down - you stay at a consistent speed until you tap the brake button once, where the speed continues to decrease until you hit the accelerator again which freezes your speed again. Seems 1980s stock cars had atrocious cruise control - who knew? And here's the clincher: NASCAR is all about skilfully balanced throttle and brake control at high speed. But driving like this is impossible with such broken controls, particularly combined with the side-scrolling steering. That's a nice car you got there Mr Trickle (fnar), it'd be a shame if it got beaten up by hitting the outside wall...again. And again. And again.

If you manage to wrestle your car around, the racing against AI cars is quite exciting in an 8-bit kind of way. You have five faceless onscreen rivals in every race, plus your two movie opponents, Rowdy Burns and Russ Wheeler - so that's already more AI opponents than Gran Turismo had for many years. Burns and Wheeler are a) in cars which bare as much resemblance to their film cars as a broken pencil does to Kate Moss, and b) absolutely impossible to beat. No, seriously. Bays of Chunder is definitely a game rooted in the arcade mentality of smacking you in the face with ridiculously hard difficulty then laughing at you and demanding more quarters. Both Burns and Wheeler scroll side-to-side relentlessly when you try to pass them, like Space Invaders meets Whacky Races, so unless you put in a miracle qualifying lap and get pole, forget trying to overtake them in a race.

But wait, I hear you cry. What about Harry Hogge's famous quote from the film? 'Rubbin', son, is racin''. Well that's as may be in real life, but good luck trying that in this game. The chewing-gum tyres start to deteriorate after a couple of laps, making turning even more frustrating, and your car screams and looses all speed at the slightest touch of another car. And all of this leads me to the absolute nadir of this game. You think 'okay, my tyres are shot, I'm nearly out of fuel, I need to pit'.

So you pull down to the pits, whereupon your pit crew stare blankly at you.

Unlike EVERY SINGLE RACING GAME EVER MADE EVER, you have to MANUALLY control EVERY INDIVIDUAL MEMBER of your pit crew. You mash the B button to select ONE tyre guy at a time and make them change the tyres ONE AT A TIME - wait, he's refusing to do it because the car isn't jacked up. So you mash A desperately, and the jack guy folds his arms and does nothing. You have to DIRECT him to the jack with the D-pad before he'll do his ONE MENIAL TASK. And for some stupid reason, the fuel guy won't refuel your car if it's jacked up. I've still yet to work out what the random guy with the spanner does.

Switching from high-speed driving to pulling teeth in the pits with your stubborn gorillas 2-3 times every race kills all sense of flow, and ruins any good work you may have achieved out on track. The potential is there in this gameplay mechanic to stand on its own as a mobile game, but in Nays of Wonder it's head-bangingly frustrating.

If you claim to have overcome the broken controls, flimsy car, aggressive AI and your own belligerently stupid pit crew and somehow aced this game with victories across the board, then well done to you - I'd rather use all that time and patience to play a better designed and more enjoyable game to be honest. Admittedly at the time there weren't many alternatives, but in 2014 we now have the luxury of choice - NASCAR 07 for the PS2 is perhaps the pick of the console NASCAR bunch.

In conclusion, it occurs to me that this game could be the sole reason so many people in Europe hate NASCAR, and in truth it could almost have had the same effect on me. There were many potential NASCAR fans traumatised by this shoddy excuse for a videogame. My heart goes out to them - nobody should have to suffer this. Please, dismiss this from your mind and give NASCAR another chance. Because this game is about as accurate a simulation of NASCAR as my drunk karaoke is to Adele.

Wait, bad example.   

(Nay's) Rating: 23/100
Grade: F