Source

Evel Knievel

• Release Date: November 15, 1999
• Genre: Racing
• Style: Motorcycle Racing
• Similar Games: Motocross Maniacs 2 (Game Boy Color), Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Driver (Game Boy Color), Test Drive Cycles (Game Boy Color), Harley-Davidson: Race Across America (Game Boy Color)

Game Description

Anyone who remembers Evel Knievel and his daring motorcycle jumps during the 1970s will take an interest in Rockstar's Evel Knievel for the Nintendo Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

You are Evel himself. Take on the 20 tracks spread across four locations (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London, and San Francisco) and if you complete them all you'll be able to recreate his famous jump across the Snake River Canyon. If you're a little nervous about what lies ahead, you can always spend some time on the Practice Level to pick up some confidence first.

Once you've done that you have the option to play with the password option enabled and five lives at your disposal or be a daredevil and take ten lives without the ability to continue later with a password. Before you start, you can customize each of the five different areas of your motorcycle: speed, acceleration, braking, rotation, and the ability to pop a wheelie.

As you race through each level you can pick up extra fuel, prize money to exchange for more points, more health to counteract the effects of all your spills, and bonus lives. If you lose a life you restart where you lost it. Each time you complete a level you get a password which enables you to pick up later where you left off.

This game is for one player only.

Roots & Influences

This game is based on the true exploits of a stuntman named Evel Knievel, who was very popular in the 1970s for his daring motorcycle jumps over parked cars, canyons and other obstacles.

Review: Overall

Evel Knievel is one of the poorest Nintendo Game Boy Color games I've played yet. I'm amazed that Tarantula Studios took a game with so much potential and trashed it by making it virtually unplayable. While I've never done stunt riding, I've ridden a motorcycle before and I can't understand how Evel's bike flips over so easily in this game.

Evel Knievel's claim to fame was his array of death-defying stunts. This game takes that idea and engages the player in a series of jumps spread through 20 levels divided into four locales. The goal is to make it through each level without flipping over onto your head, which is an incredibly hard task. If you complete all the levels you'll get to recreate Knievel's famous Snake River Canyon jump.

That's if you complete them all. I have to admit I couldn't complete one. I tried just about all of them, including the practice course, and couldn't get very far at all even after multiple tries. It was very frustrating. All of the levels start with a jump of some sort which invariably flipped me on my head. So I tried to modify my acceleration and was able to make that jump on my next try but botched the one which followed. So again I tried to adjust the bike's handling, but eventually I discovered that I just couldn't figure out how to handle every jump in the course properly so that it set me up to be successful on the next one. So, I gave up.

Every two crashes (you get five bikes total) you can modify five different aspects of the motorcycle. While I noticed differences in bike handling after making changes, I still struggled mightily. I also had no idea how tweaking my rotation or wheelie attributes made any difference and the book was no help. No game should be this hard.

And that's a shame, because it looks and sounds real nice. The graphics are the perfect size, and I really like how the bike bounces up and down on its shocks. Unfortunately, it's that bounciness which leads to trouble, and there's no way to adjust your suspension.

I would have checked the manual for gameplay tips, but the developers decided to save trees and only offer four pages of information. There is a page labeled "Playing Tips," but it actually provides gameplay information, not assistance with trying to keep yourself from cracking your head open.

One final gripe: the box has the Game Boy Printer symbol on it, but nowhere in the manual or in the game is there any indication of what, if anything, you can print out. This is yet another indication of sloppy work.

Overall, one has to wonder what the point was in releasing a game in this manner. Perhaps Tarantula hoped to make a few bucks of a well-known name and that was it. If so, that's a shame, because with some tweaking this could have been a great game.

Review: Enjoyment

Frustration.

Review: Graphics

I can't say anything negative about the graphics.

Review: Sound

Same with the sound.

Review: Replay Value

Not unless you want to be frustrated endlessly.

Review: Documentation

One area independent of the game where they could have done well and they still botched it.

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