Nerdicus NES Review #162: Days of Thunder

Title : Days of Thunder

Publisher : Mindscape Group

Developer : Beam Software

Genre : Action

Players :  1 Player

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date): $5-$7

You know me by now. I hate racing games. Even more than racing games, I typically hate games based on movies. So that's two strikes right there. Oh wait, want to make it a third strike? Okay, Tom Cruise annoys the hell out of me! Three Strikes! This game is already off to a good start, eh? Here we have Days of Thunder, based of course on that Cruise classic about racing in Daytona and sleeping with Nicole Kidman.

But really, this is just a plain 'ol racing game. But at least for a NES game, they've given it a new visual twist that I've never seen before.

Let's make this a quickie, shall we? You know I don't like lingering on racing games.

Days of Thunder brings the thrill of driving around in a circle to the NES. Joy! You'll need to start off slow though, as first you need to get through the qualifying round. Think of this as practice, but it doesn't matter how much practice you get, you're going to lose. There is no winning in this game. Tom Cruise, does not win!

I'm serious. I wasn't able to even place in the first race of the game. I don't know what my problem was, maybe I wasn't pressing the buttons right or something, but EVERYONE kept on passing me up. Let's face it, I don't know what the hell to do in a racing game besides pressing on the gas, or slamming on the brakes. But I thought there is no braking in Daytona!?

As with all Daytona races, you'll have to make the occasional pit stop too, otherwise your tires will blow out, or you'll run out of gas. You basically have to time your pit stops carefully, other wise you'll lose even more than you did before. Ugh, I can't stress how much I suck at this game. I do like the Days of Thunder advertisement on the screen though.

The most appealing part of the game is the HUD. It's nice to see a race car game as if you are looking through the windshield, although the constant spiraling black and white / or red and blue / or whatever color the race track is gets a bit nauseating.

And there's too much of a lack of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in this game. Where's the love story, dammit!? I THOUGHT THIS WAS BASED ON THE MOVIE!?

There's nothing really to say, it's a race car game. And it's a hard one at that. Probably the hardest I've played because there is actually some semblance of strategy involved. Visually it's not bad, but there's also no music during the race and the revving of your engine gets quite irritating after awhile.

Final thoughts? Meh...hated the movie, don't like the game. Too much Scientology.

Final Score (out of 5) :

Until Next time - Keep on Gaming!