MOTORHEAD
Original Release: Virgin Games, 1992, Amiga/Atari ST
Other Releases: Amiga CD32 (2005)
Lemmy and the crew's journey into gaming took the form of a strangely goofy beat-em-up
Motorhead (Amiga, Virgin Games, 1992)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
Lemmy's big appearance in the video game world was a cool cameo as a support character in Brutal Legend, but he actually had a star turn long before that in this oddball beat-em-up from Virgin that was only released for the Amiga.
It's not completely terrible, but it's disappointing in feeling a bit amateur and a lot repetitive.
So the theme is belt-scrolling in typical beat-em-up style, tuning up on clone enemies while rescuing the various other members of the band. The levels start out seeming like each is going to be themed to another musical genre, like in the first one you're in "Rap City" beating up on B-Boys (mercifully all white to keep things from getting too awkward), then the second level takes you to a country setting where you fight off cowboys and Dolly Parton doing a turn as Linda from Double Dragon.
But then after that you go to Japan for some reason, and then there's a graveyard level with zombie enemies. In between levels, there's a bonus stage where you abscond with some local vehicle and pick up power-ups, then guide Lemmy through some rockstar-appropriate challenge like grabbing beers in a Tapper clone.
That's about as far as I could get, as though the game isn't all that difficult, you only get three lives with seemingly no extras to clear the whole thing from the start. Lemmy has a long life bar, but the enemies also tend to take nice chunks off it with each hit, and there are a few segments with pits where you can get knocked in and lose a life in a snap.
The action is unfortunately on the clunky side, with that usual Amiga style of centering things around the lone joystick button, so to attack or jump or do anything but walk you have to hold the button down and press in different directions. There are but three enemy types in each level that keep repeating, and there never seems to be a boss or anything more elaborate.
Still, Motorhead fans might enjoy this one just for the exploits of chibi-Lemmy. It has an appropriately un-PC tone, with Jack Daniels and beer as power-ups, and one of the mini-games has him intercepting groupies on the way to taxis (when you're Lemmy they let you do it). The one major disappointment outside of the gameplay is that we don't get Motorhead music, even though we've got the license and the Amiga's .MOD power on hand; it's not a terrible soundtrack but it's fairly generic game-y stuff.
Links
Videos
Comments
Post a Comment