Original Release: Capcom, 1989, Arcade
A racing game in the lineage of Bump N’ Jump that isn’t particularly good.
Mad Gear (Arcade, Capcom, 1989)
Where to Buy: KLOV, eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Page
Review by: C. M0use
Mad Gear is a “spiritual update” (one might also use the term “ripoff”) of Data East’s Bump n’ Jump. It looks kinda cool at first, bringing a sort of Final Fight street criminal vibe to the proceedings apropos to the name, but you only have to play like a minute of it to learn that it’s completely obnoxious and borderline unplayable.
It just whips along too damn fast and throws too many obstacles at you given the extremely limited punishment your vehicles can take. By itself, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad for the gaming masochists out there. The problem is that it’s in tandem with one of the most obnoxious voice-overs in gaming history, constantly screaming “ENERGY! WE NEED ENERGY! OH MY CREATOR!” and such throughout pretty much all of your playtime.
Also, unlike a Bump n’ Jump, the jumps require crackerjack timing which leads to a lot more crashing and thus more ENERGY ENERGY WE NEED ENERGY. There are also some sort of oddball truck puzzle bosses, it appears there’s an orange section of their trailers you’re expected to jump on but I could never get that to actually work.
Links
Videos