343 · Mad Max
You are Mad Max. You drive your Interceptor through the post-apocalyptic wastelands and fight bandits. The game introduction is the speech from the beginning of the movie Mad Max 2 (a.k.a The Road Warrior), telling you how the world ended and how The Road Warrior, lost everything by "the roar of an engine" and how he in the wastelands "learned to live again". The game is played in a top-down view where you move your car to attack enemy cars and pick up fuel tanks (if you run out of fuel the game is over).
Mad Max came to the NES in 1990, which raised the same question we asked about Gilligan's Island: why now? Joe was out, so it was just Mike and Sean. Sean, who has seen every movie, places it between The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. We expected a throwaway tie-in and found something that feels like Mad Max, at least from the driver's seat.
What works
- The wasteland. Driving around the open desert in a matte-black Interceptor gets the aesthetic right. It looks a little like a Hot Wheels toy, which is a compliment. Other cars hunt you, and you throw dynamite at them.
- The arena. Once you've collected enough supplies, you buy a pass at a gas station and enter what amounts to car Thunderdome: last car standing, no weapons, trapdoors, and rivals trying to ram you off the stage. We called it a Twisted Metal relative, five or so years early.
- Supplies. Food, water, ammo and gas all matter, so you do have to stay on top of them. Food and water are both currency, and they're interchangeable. We'd have valued the water more.
- It tried. We expected a side-scroller with enemies vaguely like the movie cast. A car combat game was the bolder bet.
What doesn't
- On foot, it falls apart. Getting out of the car puts you in bunker mazes that feel empty. The walk is strange: Max struts up and down the screen bow-legged and runs from side to side. Both his arms have sleeves, though the box art jacket has one. The enemies look like old-time gangsters, and it's absurdly easy.
- The loop doesn't change. Find the maze, get the key, buy the pass, win the arena, move to the next stretch of wasteland. You do this about five times, and each new area is the same one with the buildings moved around. We would have preferred one big map to explore and backtrack through, a bit like Metroid.
- The ending. The final boss, a Lord Humongous type in a mask, shows up out of nowhere with a crossbow you never had before. It's a shooting match where you step out of the way of the bullets. After a game all about vehicles, the Interceptor sits it out.
- Frustrating to drive. Oil slicks and other hazards crowd the roads. The arenas are huge for no reason, and a four-player arena would have been a natural fit, but there's no multiplayer.
Beyond the game
The only other Mad Max game in the franchise is the 2015 one, developed alongside Fury Road, which Sean calls flawed but fun. He also pointed to the 16-bit game Outlander, a vehicular combat game that was pitched as Mad Max before the license fell through.
The bottom line
Skip it. We both voted no on the Essential Games List. As a movie tie-in it's pretty solid and clearly connected to the films, but there isn't a full game here, and it feels stale after one go-round. Sean's advice: skip the NES game and play the 2015 one.
Written from our conversation in this episode.
- Longplay
- Manual
- Post-Apocalyptic Atmosphere:
- Mad Max on the NES captures the bleak, desolate world of the Mad Max universe. Discuss how the game’s art design and color palette reflect the post-apocalyptic setting and compare it to other games of the era.
- Top-Down Vehicular Combat:
- The game’s primary mechanic revolves around top-down vehicular combat, where players navigate and battle in the Interceptor (Pursuit Special).
- Resource Management Mechanics:
- Fuel and ammo are scarce in Mad Max, requiring players to carefully manage their resources. Debate whether this adds to the game's tension and survival aspect or detracts from the fun.
- Like Mad Max, Twisted Metal (1995) on the PlayStation involves resource management in terms of ammunition and health pickups. Both games require players to be mindful of their resources during combat, although Twisted Metal offers a more arcade-like experience compared to the strategic, survival-based approach of Mad Max.
- Food and water are interchangeable in this game
- Use of Weapons and Upgrades:
- Players can equip their vehicle with various weapons and upgrades. Examine how this feature enhances the combat experience and ties into the film's themes of survival and improvisation.
- The inclusion of RPG-like elements such as trading and upgrading, which were uncommon in NES action games. Analyze how these elements fit into the overall gameplay and how they might have influenced later games.
- Twisted Metal allows players to choose from a wide variety of vehicles, each with unique weapons and abilities. Mad Max has more limited customization options, focusing on upgrading the Interceptor with a small selection of weapons rather than offering a wide array of vehicles and combat styles.
- The Mine Sub-Levels
- Scattered throughout the levels are abandoned mines, marked by a small shed. By driving into the shed, Max will leave his vehicle and enter the mine. While inside the mine, Max runs around in a top down exploration
- The Arena
- The player must gather enough food and water to trade at the service station for an Arena Pass. Once the pass is obtained, the player must find the Arena, which appears as a large cave. Once inside the arena, the player must be the last vehicle to survive the demolition derby inside. Enemy vehicles drive around the arena and attempt to push the player, as well as each other, off of the road into the abyss below. In addition, several areas of the floor open up at random, leaving vehicles to fall into the pitfall.
- No Multiplayer:
- Could’ve been fun head to head vehicle combat
- The Weird Final Battle
- Film Tie-In Challenges:
- As a licensed game, Mad Max faced the challenge of living up to the film’s legacy. Discuss how well the game translates the movie's atmosphere and action to the NES format, and where it might fall short.
- Narrative and Storytelling:
- The original Mad Max movie is a character-driven narrative that explores Max’s transformation from a lawman into a vengeful anti-hero after the tragic death of his family. The game, on the other hand, lacks a deep narrative and is more focused on action and gameplay. The story is minimal, with the game primarily emphasizing combat and survival rather than character development.
- Combat Dynamics:
- In the film, vehicular combat is intense and chaotic, often involving high-speed chases with explosive outcomes. The game’s combat, while attempting to capture this, is more methodical and slower-paced due to the limitations of the NES and the top-down view. The action is less about speed and more about strategic movement and resource management.
- Difficulty and Player Frustration:
- The game is notorious for its difficulty and lack of clear direction. Debate whether this difficulty is a product of the era’s design philosophy or a flaw that hampers the overall experience.
- Comparison to Modern Mad Max Games:
- Compare the NES Mad Max to more recent entries, such as the 2015 Mad Max game. Discuss how the evolution of technology and game design has transformed the way the Mad Max universe is portrayed in video games.
Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.
Mad Max, to understand you must go back to when the world was powered by the black fuel.
And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. And this is Sean. And it's just the two of us today, but that's fine because Joe probably has never seen Mad Max and therefore, you know, wouldn't be at all helpful to the conversation.
We don't know that. Joe, have you seen Mad Max? It's just a trend. It's a trend of like usually any kind of like 80s movie or whatever. Not a trend for Joe specifically, but just for us. It's like we either didn't see the movie or we've only heard of it or we watched it a long time ago and we're just not willing to put in the commitment to watch the movie and play the game in the same week. That's just a crazy commitment. How can you expect us to do that? Well, I have seen the movie and I'm actually a big fan of the franchise. I don't know about you. Well, which movie though, Sean? Because do you assume that because this is Mad Max that it is based off the first movie?
It definitely isn't. Um, but I've seen them all and I could tell you that this is the closest, the closest we got here is it's like a mix between Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome here. Okay. All right. And what is the, the biggest draw of the Mad Max universe? And don't say Mel Gibson.
You mean just the, the, the world in general, not like the, the game. Yeah. Like what's the hook to the, to the franchise? What makes people say like, yeah, Mad Max is cool because blank. And there's a lot, there's a lot of things, man. There's like just the aesthetic, like it basically codified the, like the wasteland, uh, post apocalypse setting aesthetic. Uh, there's the fucking cars that like the, the very creative ways that they, they just put junkers together and just make them awesome.
Uh, that like just the, the whole thing with, with vehicular combat and like the, the 20 to 30 minute long, uh, scenes of just pure mayhem that are usually practicals. Um, it's, it's a unique, it, there's nothing like it in film. So, and I think you really hit it right away too with the, the wasteland aesthetic. Like that's what I think of for Mad Max.
So I, I feel like especially recently with Fury Road and then, uh, the Furiosa, um, follow up, like Mad Max is bigger than ever, probably bigger than it was in the eighties just because of Fury Road, just taking that aesthetic of, you know, post-apocalyptic wasteland and really just like dialing it all up and really leaning into it. And like you were saying with the vehicular combat stuff, it's like, obviously that should be the game's focus too, but it is a huge draw for the movies.
It's what I kind of, I've never seen a need for speed movie, but I would hope that most of the need for speed isn't actually the like racing like it is in the games and that there's actually some really cool destruction going on because that's what I want to see fast cars do. I want to see them do crazy destructive things, not like crazy slick things like, oh, look at that, look at that stop before it explodes. It's like, no explode.
Yeah. I mean, so in the game here, we got the interceptor. It might look a little, you know, cartoony, but I think that's one of the most iconic cars, uh, in, in movies is just this like matte black fucked up interceptor. Uh, I don't actually know what the actual model of the car is, but, uh, I'm glad that it's at least they attempted it here. Yeah. And it kind of looks like a hot wheel. Yeah. With the graphics. No, in a good way. In a good way.
Hot wheels are sick. I'll say it. I still have some hot wheels somewhere, uh, in an attic. Uh, and I think that's fine because again, you know, just to, just to start forget about the game since we're saying that, you know, the big draw of Mad Max is this post-apocalyptic atmosphere. How well does the game translate those movie visuals?
Uh, you know, it, it, it, it's, it's eight bit pixel art. So can it, can it get it done? So I'd say this is, it, it's surprising like the, the level to which this actually feels like Mad Max because I wasn't expecting it to even, even feel like it at all. Um, and I'm not saying that this is like in it, that this is a masterpiece or like a definitive video game representation of Mad Max, but it actually does feel like a, a method of gameplay
with enough aesthetic hooks and like not so much callbacks, but it, it's at least thematically there. Uh, it does feel like a Mad Max game. I think the wasteland itself, the, uh, the part of the game where you were just driving around in the car and, uh, you know, they are level based, but let's just say it's at that point, you're just driving around the open wasteland looking for these either mazes or, uh, progression points. Uh, that part, uh, definitely gets the aesthetic, right? I think once you get into the, I don't even know if they're mazes or mines or whatever, like once you get into that. Like, yeah, buildings and like bunkers. I think they're bunkers.
Yeah. Once you get into that, that's where it starts to just like not lean into Mad Max and just kind of be like, well, we have to do something, you know, with Max on foot and, and, uh, a reason to get out of the car. So we designed all this, that, that feels kind of empty and barren, which maybe is great for the wasteland aesthetic. But I, I felt like that was the moment where, you know, okay, now game design got in the way of like franchise goals. And I do think that it was smart to, to have there be another mode of play.
Uh, even today, the most recent, I think the only other Mad Max game, the, the listeners can correct me later, uh, which was, I think for the PS3 generation slash 360, maybe it was, I don't know. Yeah, no, it was definitely like a PS3 game. Um, the main focus was the car combat. And then they also had on foot sections with like some Batman, uh, Arkham combat because they couldn't think of anything else.
Uh, and that's, it's sort of an afterthought and this, yes, the, the walking on foot stuff is an afterthought. It's kind of like the, the, the art style gets a little weird and you end up like shoot, shooting guys that look more like old timey, like gangstery than wasteland, like bandit look, look to them. I'm not sure why. Uh, but you're looking for food and water. So at least that's thematically appropriate or fuel or bullets. Uh, but yeah, there's not really much to it and it's kind of ridiculously easy.
So it's, you can gloss over those sections really. And when you're driving around in the interceptor, uh, naturally it's not a barren wasteland. There are other, uh, vehicles out to get you. And that kind of creates, uh, one of the core mechanics of the game is the vehicular combat. And there's, as you're driving around the wasteland, you take care of enemy cars, but then it becomes a, uh, you know, like a showdown, uh, to progress to the next level where you have to be the last car standing.
And, uh, you know, there's like little trap doors hidden around the place. Other cars are trying to ram you off the stage and you have to take care of them. And, uh, that part, you know, I, I, I don't really know twisted metal as a franchise that well, but like, to me, that was like the nearest adjacent I could think of is like, wow, this is like, this is like five, seven years before twisted metal, but it's doing it.
Well, what's funny is that when you're out on the, like the, not the world map, but when you're out on like the wasteland sections, you have like a weapon. You can throw dynamite at people and that feels very, uh, twisted metal. But then when you go into these sort of showdown, once you've collected enough supplies and you go to the gas station to get your pass to basically car Thunderdome, uh, then that's like, no, this is actually like a fight to the death.
And then you don't have any weapons. So it's like in different sections of the car gameplay, it, it sort of, uh, it reflects different things of what twisted metal would eventually be, but it's like kind of scattered throughout the game. But, you know, I, I agree that you can kind of see where, where they're, where that's coming from in this game. But twisted metal obviously was, you know, it had multiple characters with different vehicles that you could choose from. Uh, there were different weapons and abilities for said cars. The interceptor obviously is the only choice for Mad Max to drive around in.
So does that feel like something that gets beefier, like that you tune up? Should it have been something where, uh, the car starts out as like a beater piece of shit. And by the end of it, it graphically looks different. Like, should they have went for something like that?
Um, no, I think that, you know, if you're, if we're talking about a franchise game and when we're on the NES where there's, there's less like, I'm not going to say creativity, but, but there's less like of a, of a technical ability to play around with these things. I think it just has to be the interceptor. If it were any other car, it would be, what is this? Just like, just mock rider. Like what, what, what world is it? Right, right. Like really the only thing that is telling you that this is definitively Mad Max and not just a generic wasteland is the interceptor.
Did we ever talk about how like the mock rider world is similar to Mad Max? Do we ever bring that comparison up? I'm pretty sure in the episode we talked about it. Okay, good. Cause that feels like something that while playing, I never even thought of, but you saying mock rider, you know, I feel it right away. Obviously two totally different games from gameplay perspective.
The, for lack of a better word, resource management of this game, right? You were mentioning, you pick up food and water and ammo and gas and you got to, uh, you know, kind of not necessarily, it's not a, it's not a simulation level, but like you do have to be on top of those things.
Yeah. Uh, it is weird that two of the resources in the game, food and water, uh, act as currency and that both are interchangeable. They, they, they cost the, they're the same thing. So whether you're picking up water or you're picking up food, it's all going into the same bucket of currency. Yeah, it is from a purely game design perspective. It's strange. It, it makes sense. And I think it would be very weird if you showed up to this place, bought your ticket via bartering food and water and, and having a shit ton of food wasn't like, like, come on, just cut me a break here. Um, it just sort of begs the question, why did they separate them out and why not just have like supplies in general?
Um, I don't know. It works ish. I would have valued the water more like, you know, we're in a wasteland. I would think that the water should have been like 10 points for the foods five. Oh, so, okay. That's an interesting take. You can go like 40 days without food, right? It's water that you like need pretty quick. I think it depends on like, you know, how much food you normally have before that too. And I'm not really, I'm not a nutrition scientist. If Max got really desperate, he could start eating the car.
The leather seats at least. Yeah, exactly. We kind of talked about the mind sub, I keep calling them minds. I don't know, like the, the sub levels where you're max on foot. Uh, but basically scattered throughout all these wastelands are, uh, it's like small little entrances to a much larger maze area where you have to basically run around and, and really like strut around, right? What's up with that? Like that walk, but the walk is different too though.
There's like the walk North South versus East West. Yeah. He walks, he struts North to South, but he like runs East to West. They have some really weird perspective going on here, uh, where it just like doesn't work for a top down perspective when you're walking up and down. It's totally fine left and right, but they, they get him really like bow legged when you're walking up and down and he walks really funny. Like there's no, his feet, one foot always has to be on the ground. It's, it's goofy. It's very goofy looking. Also, both of his arms have sleeves and only one is supposed to have a sleeve. Ooh. Yeah.
Can't believe that this game got made. It's on the front. It's on the first thing that you see is like a, an eight bit crunched version. Like that iconic Mel Gibson road warrior fricking jacket picture. And you can see that there's one sleeve and in the game, when you're walking around as Mad Max, he's got two sleeves. It's ridiculous. . .
.
There is no multiplayer in this game, which sounds kind of silly, right? Like, oh, no multiplayer. But think about it. Could have been a big plus for just choose your vehicle and taking that arena mode where you have to be the last car standing and doing something with either a second player or using the four score to have a four player battle. I think it's something that should have at least been considered probably was and just left out for time or because the franchise wasn't, you know, a huge priority or something. But I think it was it was something that was missing from this game.
I kind of wonder how that would work out, because the camera is really only it only gives you enough real estate to to really focus on the one guy. Like, would it then be a completely different like rendering system where all the cars are smaller or is everyone just on the screen or are there a bunch of really tiny like split screens going? Yeah, there's a bunch of really tiny split screens, right? We've seen that before with with at least two player options where there where there is now a sudden split screen view.
Yeah, you know, usually cut horizontally, which what's your take on that? Horizontal or vertical split screens? Uh, I think it depends on the kind of game if it was if this were an FP. Actually, no, I think even when I play split screen twisted metal verticals better because I agree. Yeah, you know, you're never going to have that peripheral vision anyway.
It's so much easier to be you're the guy on the left, you know, like when you're telling your friend or your dad for the first time, like, yeah, you're the one on the left rather than like you're the one up top. Like what? But same with first person shooters. I would much prefer to be left, right, then up, down. And to go back to the game, I mean, that really is the core loop of it. You explore the wasteland to find the maze of each level to pick up the key to move into the arena to take down all the cars to then enter the next portion of the wasteland. And there is no, you know, the movie. The movie obviously is a more character driven narrative. There's like no narrative here on Max. There's no statement about it.
You're just jumped into the next you're dumped into the next level. And that's the way that the game goes until the very end of the game where there's this weird final battle that does not have any. That wrestler, right? Yeah. It does not have any sort of finality feeling to it. It's not like any other moment in the game. But you are just, you know, like he's shooting at you and you're shooting back at him. And you just have to move out of the way of his bullets and shoot your bullets and hope he walks into them or time them right. Like it's not even complicated, right?
It's really not that hard. I'm saying getting there is probably harder than the fight. No, it, I actually didn't get far enough to, to, to actually get into this fight. I just watched a video of it and I'm, I'm glad I did because the game, like, okay, just, just moving away from this fight real quick. You, you do this, what, what might just describe this loop like five times until you finally get to this boss. And those five times you're doing the exact same thing. You're finding, you're, you're finding the supplies, you're, you're buying the pass, you're doing the, the, like, arena mode. And then you get to this.
So the, the payoff really isn't there. The, the guy is obviously based off of Lord Humongous, uh, at least with the mask. And I guess he's got, like, crossbows. Now you have a crossbow, don't know why. But it's really, um, to make that like a mini game to end the game is, is, is very silly. It's always very silly. You touched on a pet peeve of mine there, Sean, but it is true.
Uh, the, these early games don't get a pass on like the, you suddenly have a weapon that you never had before. And it's like, you could have at least made the fifth stage of the wasteland. You have to like buy the crossbow to move on. Right. They could have at least like narratively done it that way. Right. Or put it in a cut scene, an explanation, but to just like, yeah, to just no introduction, you're just dropped into a fight and you could never shoot anybody while you were, uh, or sorry. Um, you never had to shoot anybody in like the game. Didn't look like that in the, in any of the other modes.
And now all of a sudden it's this, like you said, mini game, it just feels like a really random ending. Whereas I would have thought, uh, you know, make it like some crazy, much larger vehicle that you have to like somehow knock off and take off in the arena in like a one V one would have been more suitable to like what the game was throwing down. Because the game focuses so hard on the vehicle aspects of it that it feels kind of weird to just be like, and at the end, you know, um, the interceptor is nothing. And Max is, uh, is, is behind it all.
I'd say if it was sort of like a smaller arena, because those arena levels are massive for no reason. Uh, and then, but it's sort of like those maps that like those matches that you play throughout the game, but they just gave you like the dynamite back. And maybe the, the, the final bosses vehicle has some different kind of weapon that you have to like, it's, it's within the abilities of this game to do that. Um, like just like, it's not like you have to change the generation of video game system for that to be a possibility. Like in some instances where we recommend something different. Uh, yeah, it's just a weird decision.
Sean, you mentioned, um, the Mad Max 2015 video game, which is the only released, uh, not sequel, but other game in the franchise. There are no other, there were other games in the works, apparently a Mad Max Asylum and Mad Max Autorama were two of them, but they, they never made it out the door. There was one game that did make it out the door for a super Nintendo and Sega Genesis called Outlander, but it, uh, was like pitched as a Mad Max video game. But instead, uh, they had to like, they couldn't get the license. So they stripped all that stuff out. And obviously like the game is spiritually in the same vein. It is a vehicular combat game, but just no actual references. What game was that?
Outlander. It's, um, it's like a 16 bit followup. So if you have any interest in, you know, you played this version of Mad Max and wanted to see where they would take it. Outlander would be the one to check out. Uh, but I have never played the 2015 Mad Max video game, but when I think of Mad Max video games, I think of Rage 2.
Yeah. Like, doesn't that like feel like it's Fury Road inspired? I mean, I think of a lot of games when I think of Mad Max. I mean, the, a lot of the marketing for Fallout 3 had, it was really, really leaning on imagery from Mad Max. And, uh, I know it's not the Australian Outback. It's just DC and the outskirts, but, uh, they, they really leaned into it there. Rage, definitely. Rage, um, I would say matches up more with like the Fury Road and later feel. Because the vehicles are crazy and it has the punks, you know, with the, all, you know, all the, uh, battle gear on. But no, I agree. Yeah.
Um. Uh, so was that Mad Max 2015 video game, since you're, uh, the unfortunate expert of it on this episode, uh, was that anything like, um, like, it was before Fury Road, right? So it wouldn't have had any inspiration there. So it's funny. Uh, it was developed alongside Fury Road and actually they, they, the two teams, like, well, I mean, not that they were equal, but there was a lot of, like, uh, dailies coming from the set of Fury Road that was going directly to the, uh, the developer. So they were able to, like, like, Immortan Joe is named, um, this is, like, one of his sons that, like, is the main villain in this one.
Um, the war boys are all there. Uh, there's a lot of, it's, it's basically the same map that they reference a lot of the places in the newer games. So it's, it's that, um, and I'd say it's a flawed game, but it's actually a really, I'd say it's a fun game and they actually nail, uh, vehicular combat pretty well.
Um, so I'd say it's, it's overlooked sometime. Huh. That's cool. And, and I only have one interesting thing to add just because I'm skimming the development page for it, uh, is that it, uh, it was originally, like, George Miller was involved in, like, a true tie-in Mad Max video game. But then, I guess, either left the project or, uh. Yeah, he didn't like where it was going. Yeah, right, left the project.
But then, like, so this game is, is not that game that he was working on? Or you think, like, no, it's not. Okay, cool. It's technically the same title. Like, I mean, as much as a game that goes through so many iterations and is in development hell for a long time can be the same game. Like, it's technically the same, uh, like, continuous development. But no, this is not the game that was, like, it didn't have the feature set that that game would have had. Got it, got it.
Very interesting. Very surprising, I do. I think Mad Max is certainly one of those, uh, that lends itself to video game adaptations. But so would, uh, like, the Terminator franchise, right? And you don't see, like, too many Terminator games. Like, they exist, but there's not, like. Yeah, they're not good. Yeah, or, yeah, or it's just not, like, as, as many as you would think. Like, I think there's a lot of these 80s action movies that the NES, like, was almost, like, obligated to have. Because they were, you know, at the time, like, they were expected to, you know, break off from the movie, release a video game. Fans of the movie would then buy the game. And it's just, like, another revenue stream.
That's not, like, true, though, of, like, oh, well, then we also have to do that. Like, we have to make a Mad Max Super Nintendo game. We have to make a Mad Max N64 game. It's like, it never happened. It didn't continue that trend. It was funny. Like, because I had to remind myself, like, when this game was released. Because I'm like, oh, this is just going to be some kind of Mad Max 1 thing. And I'm like, that's the movie that lent itself the least to a video game. Because it was so low budget. He couldn't do what he wanted to do.
But, no, this is 1990. So they have Mad Max, Road Warrior, and Thunderdome to work off of. And just another one of those situations. Not as crazy as we've had in the past. Of, like, it's 1990. Why are we making a Mad Max game? In the same way of, like, it's 1990. Why are we making a Gilligan's Island game? Right. But it's still a question. It's still there. And there's only one question that remains on this episode. And that is whether Mad Max will be on the Essential Games list.
As far as movie tie-in video games go, this is pretty solid. I do feel like it's mostly inspired slash connected to the movie franchise. And I can tell that that's the Interceptor. And I can follow with the vehicular combat stuff. What I can't get over is just that the gameplay loop itself is pretty stale after the first time you do it. It's a little disappointing to not have, like, one giant wasteland that you kind of explore, backtrack through when you, you know, buy new stuff at a shop. You know, like, not Metroid, but kind of Metroid-y.
Something like that. And instead just being like, no, it's just like we gated off the next section of the wasteland that looks exactly like this section. But just, you know, we moved some buildings and changed the directions of the roads. I just, I can't, I can't in good conscience say that that's a smart design choice for a video game.
So while I like how connected this feels to the franchise itself, probably even more than Gilligan's Island, which was also feeling pretty good as, like, as far as franchise games go. So I think video game developers in general right now are learning the right lessons about, like, not doing the back to the future thing of just, like, yeah, if you just, like, loosely tell the story and make gameplay elements around those story beats, you'll have a great movie video game. It's like, no, that's not the way to do it. But this isn't necessarily the way to go either. You can't just lay down some great ideas but not follow through on the full experience.
There's not a full experience to this game. And so for that reason, it won't be on the Essential Games list for me. Sean? Yeah, I agree. I've been pretty generous to this game just because I really like VIP.
And I was just surprised that they actually tried to make it about that card combat and not just, like, a side-scroller where there's, like, some enemies that kind of look like characters from the movies. Like, kind of Mike was saying, less minigame. I thought it was going to be more side-scrollery. Um, so, yeah, I really admire that they tried. Um, but even, even when you're playing, like, we never really got into the, like, the feel of the game aside from the goofy walk in the, in the bunkers. But even when you're driving around, like, it, it doesn't feel great.
There's so many different things that you can run into or, like, oil slicks. And there's a lot of frustration in the driving that I think, you know, maybe thematically makes sense. But does it make it a fun game? I don't know. So, yeah, not Essential. Still cool. Play the 2015 game. All right. Um, that's it. You've heard it. And, you know, I gotta say, Sean, really, uh, appreciated your Mad Max knowledge here. Um, maybe in the future, uh, we should, like, pick an expert for each franchise before we review the games. Like, you're, you're the guy, you're gonna watch all the films, uh, before tonight's episode. Do we draw straws? Yeah, what's the next franchise video game that's coming out? Who's gonna have to watch all of what? Let's take a look here.
It's a lot of episodes. You gotta scroll down this list pretty far. Um, I guess we could play the next person. Next week's episode's Pictionary. So maybe Joe could play, like, every version of Pictionary ever released. We've been looking forward to this. Yeah. So he could do that. Um, uh, Dick Tracy. So who wants to watch? I nominate Joe. Yep. Joe will consume all Dick Tracy media, of which I'm sure there's plenty.
There's, uh, Dick Tracy comics. Gotta be, like, gotta be, like, hundreds of those. If not thousands. Right? I thought it was more like a paperback thing. Like, uh, or really short novellas. Those were comics? Is that what they were? Yeah, I thought they were comics. Oh, okay. I thought Dick Tracy was, yeah. Shows you how much I know. Not like DC comics, though, right? Oh, yeah. I thought he was, like, newspaper.
Maybe. I don't know. Which is funny because, like, Superman had a newspaper comic. Spider-Man had a newspaper comic. It's just, like, people didn't care about those. Like, who's collecting, like... I mean, what can you do with those, like, six panels? Right, right. Who's being like, I have the first Spider-Man newspaper strip. Like, nobody's buying that. You might. I would.
I See you next time.
