Road Avenger

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Road Avenger
North American Road Avenger box art for Sega CD
Developer(s) Data East (arcade), Wolf Team (Sega Mega CD)
Publisher(s) Data East (arcade), Renovation Products (Sega Mega CD)
Release date(s) December 18, 1992
Genre(s) Driving
Mode(s) Single player
Platform(s) Arcade, Sega Mega CD
Media 1 CD-ROM

Road Avenger (known as Road Blaster in Japan) was an arcade and Sega Mega CD (known as Sega CD in North America) release that took the style of interactive movie (as seen in titles such as Dragon's Lair) and brought it to the world of driving. The on-screen action was a first-person perspective from the drivers seat of a sports car, as you raced through a wide variety of locales, responding to on screen directions in an allotted time limit to continue the action (if the game was set to 'hard' difficulty the on screen instructions would no longer appear, forcing the player to play from memory). Should you miss a direction, or not react quickly enough, a video of your car crashing would be played. The game boasted a full CD soundtrack, and over 30 minutes of interactive animation.

[edit] Story

You play as a newlywed cop, who was involved in a car accident caused by a gang that leaves his wife dead, however, you managed to survive the crash. Deciding to seek revenge on this gang, you will play though a series of high-speed chases in which you squeeze between trucks, fend off reckless S.C.U.M. (Secret Criminal Underground Movement) members, perform dangerous stunts, commit acts of vehicular homicide on the S.C.U.M. gang, and narrowly avoid certain death seemingly hundreds of times.

[edit] Lyrics

Here are the lyrics to the theme song heard in the beginning of the English version of the game:

I am gonna revive, When I am, on the road!

I got nowhere to hide, When I am, on the road!

And there's no use in wondering why, I made you feel like running from me then girl

How many more tears must I shed, before I mend this blazing wall of time

So I'm gonna break it! Have no fear, on the road!

I know I want you to make it, No matter what's, on the road!

And don't you worry it's very hard. To be working for the silver moon

But I don't care how hard it takes, As long as she lights my way out the gloom

Until the very moment, When I'll see, you again

I keep steering my way into the sun, The burning sun

Hear the roars of my car! I'm nearing down the bend!

Searching for the love that we did share, There's no one that can stop me now!

You can hear the entire theme song here [1]

(Note that the original arcade game only has an instrumental theme. This vocal theme is specific to the console version, and is different in the Japanese edition).

[edit] Trivia

  • The game was first released by Data East in 1985 as a laserdisc arcade game called Road Blaster, although the alternate title of Turbo Blaster was also used in the United States and Europe. The home console version is known as Road Blaster FX in Japan.)
  • The game is inspired by the movie Mad Max which also had an protragonist who vowed revenge on a street gang for killing his wife (in the case of Mad Max, his child as well) and extracted revenge in a similar manner.
  • The voice over for Wolf Team's logo was done by George Takei of Star Trek fame.