Desert Demolition (Genesis)

Everyone knows Looney Tunes, especially Bugs Bunny. He's in most top hierarchy of fame. On slightly lower than Bug's, there's Road Runner. While quite further below, Wile E. Coyote resides. Did you know that there's game starring them? Well there's one in Sega Megadrive, that i will review. The name is Desert Demolition.

There's the stars, they look happy. Wile gleefully chases Roadrunner, while Roadrunner run with wide smile on his face and most likely ignores the coyote. I don't have to explain about the premise, right? I told you the summary, anyway. The relation between Coyote & Roadrunner here is quite like Tom & Jerry in (presumably) Mexican region. Roadrunner himself isn't as witty as the mouse, but he can run fast. I mean really freaking fast that he could be Looney Tunes's Quicksilver or The Flash. The focus of the show is The Coyote's attempt to catch the bird with various trap or gadget from -you can guess it- Acme company. Or he just homemade technology contraption/trap. Needless to say his efforts always end up fail, otherwise their shows will be cut short. I know that Wile manages to capture the bird but he ask the audience via written sign "I catch the bird. Now what?", once. I never watch that episode myself. Here, i can use up/down direction to choose between start the game and option menu, while pressing left/right direction allow me to choose my role between the hunter and the prey. I already told you that the focus of their show is The Coyote. Thus i'll be the (miserable) predator. I'll tell you the difference if i become the running bird at the end of article.

 

The option menu also act as tutorial stage but without instruction except for button configuration. The control is: direction pad to move, down direction to operate lever, 'A' button to leap, 'B' button to run, 'C' button to jump. The exit is beyond button configuration or you can press 'start' button to end this stage.

 

After that, the game gives us info here. The health pickup may look like Gatorade or any colorful sports drinks. But if you look closer, it's bottle of vitamin pills. Consuming lots of vitamin is definitely healthy [Sarcasm, perhaps?]. You may think that catching the Roadrunner (and presumably taking a bite on him) will restore the Wile's health. It isn't the case. But you will get benefit from catching the smug bird. I will explain about that later.

 

Here's the basic focus of the show: Coyote chases Roadrunner on foot. Of course, his speed is much slower than the running bird. This more likely not end up in success...

... especially he bumped a cactus, leaving the bird escapes. Wait! Come back! There's more to this, i promise.

 

Entering an Acme crate, grants me jet powered rollerblades. I can slightly outrun him at the cost of worse jump and constant moving.

Then we shares an awkward stare. If you're familiar with the show, you can imagine that the Roadrunner gives me "strawberry" really quick. I forgot if that's true. But you can pretend he does that here. Behold! It's another crate. The chase will be easier to me.

 

Or so i thought. It gives me spring shoes. As you can see, they're not helping me to catch the smug bird. But i can reach high platform and also that vitamin pills that i really need.

 

Besides that shoes and that trampoline, i can travel  further in this stage by being living cannonball. You can change the cannon's direction by 45^o with press of left/right direction button.

 

The exit is riding on large firework rocket. That's staple on American cartoon.

 

He's cornered. Can i catch him?  

 

Yes, even though i slam myself to the wall which makes my health decreases slightly. Successfully catch the Roadrunner will make stamps and time-up pickup to appear and homing toward you. Most stages in Desert Demolition have tight time-limit. So increasing the timer is very vital besides finding correct path to exit. Nice pictograph of me, there.

 

"Keep your balance!" said potted dry tree. Shut up! I know what to do. To balance on that strange helmet, simply press left or right button appropriately so Wile doesn't plummet to the ground painfully. If he can simply grab the zip line like Musashi, i don't have to deal with this balancing non-sense. You just trouble both of us, darn coyote.

 

Here's the tricky part. Not catching the Roadrunner, he's fairly easy to get when there's not much open space in front of him. What i mean is to reach the Exit (sign) there. You have to jump with that trampoline with very-tight accuracy. You will either bump into ceiling or jump not high enough to reach there. Fortunately, i have lots of time here.

There are tons explosive (especially explosive barrel) in this game. The game is called 'Desert Demolition' for nothing, you see. Everytime Wile got one of them, he will turn charred and then fall over. This is really Looney Tunes game.

 

I can crawl by holding down button + left/right button. With this move, i can crawl through these cargo pipe to get that vitamin pills. Crawling probably will make me less visible to Roadrunner thus i can get him sneakily. But i never test that with convincing result.

 

Ha! I have you now! This is one of rare case where leaping works well. More often than not, leaping will dropping your speed with no result. I'm just lucky here.

 

The exit is pulling that brake. The Roadrunner is just there being cornered and getting too big for his britches. 

 

Quick, Wile! Catch him while i distract him with me play the game with keyboard instead of Sega Megadrive controller! This is 4th wall real teamwork.

Upon collecting 125 stamps. Wile can goes to bonus stage: he collect pickups while avoiding explosive barrel and being chased by the train. Should he deplete his life in any bonus stage, his live is decreased. What a cruel game design. But at least i found the train's operator: his fellow of Looney Tunes, Yosemite Sam. Still being trigger happy with those revolver, i see.

 

Leaping can be used to cross gap like this. Normal jumping is valid option, but to me leaping feels more accurate. Feel free to use leap move...

 

...if you can bear that accusatory looks on his face whenever he lands safely. What, coyote? You want me to control you to fall 20 meters into pit of dozen explosives, huh? Is that want you want?

 

The bonus stage in this cavern: Wile has to use pneumatic drill on to crumbling floor to go deeper and collect pickup as many as he can within a time limit. There's also clock pickup to extend the bonus stage. If i remember correctly, you don't lose a life if you get time out in bonus stage.

 

In the deepest part of this bonus stage, i found Sylvester and Tweety. The granny must becomes really senile if she put Tweety (along with his cage) here.

In this stage, Roadrunner can defies gravity by running along the wall. I'm barely surprised with this fact. If Sonic The Hedgehog can do this, naturally the smug bird can do too. I was hoping that the spring shoes can help me catch him while he's wall-running. But no. It didn't work. Maybe there's better device than this.

 

A Pteranodon suit that allow me to fly, is certainly better than stupid spring on my feet. You think you're faster than me, huh? Well, you're right. But i can fly while you can't. Hah!

 

In this bonus stage, i meet Daffy and Elmer. Daffy's bill becomes upside down whenever he got Elmer's shotgun blast. Looney Tunes, man.

 

The bonus stage itself isn't fun, tedious even. I have to jump between logs in this waterfall. It's common in any platformer game albeit faster and more difficult. Nice visual effect on waterfall, though.

 

The Grand Finale (which is the stage's name also), is final bout between The Coyote and The Roadrunner. The bird is on that truck below. As long as you're in the platforms or crates, you'll not get hit by the truck. But he tosses bombs at you while driving that heavy vehicle left and right. To fight back him, you have to travel to either most left platform or most right platform. There you will find lever that will drop explosive barrel below and you have to time it right to damage the truck. Each container only hold 3 barrels at a time. So you have to go to the platform in opposite direction and do that again. Then you have to repeat the procedure. The barrels will be restored each time you have travelled far away.

 

Should you fall to the floor, there's lots of trampoline that can help you jump into safety. Bumping into the truck can boost your jump/run at the cost of your health, of course. I forgot to mention about boost that can enhance your running speed greatly for short period. Activated by pressing 'B' button while running, provided if you have stock of boosts which is the icon with lightning symbol. I very rarely use them because outrunning Roadrunner is usually useless (he can jump above me). But for this case, they can be very useful.

 

The reward for beating Roadrunner: Wile becomes Acme's Customer of The Year. Buying their products through entire episodes, really pays off, huh? Look at his face. That's the face of an underdog that finally get a sweet victory in the end. The game really makes him miserable joke character. But once you finish the game, he get glorious ending. Godspeed him. While The Roadrunner running away because of jealousy. Or he just want to keep running like what he always does. Speaking of him...

 

...he plays very different than Coyote even though he shares the same amount of stages. Albeit in Final stage, there's only 1 (or maybe 2) time-up pickup. As you can expect, The Roadrunner is fast. He runs all the time without pressing 'B' button but with gradual acceleration. Pressing 'B' button will instantly use the boost power-up. Pressing 'A' button will make him honks. You know? The "Beep-beep!" voice. He drop himself at ladders instead properly descend it like Coyote. He jumps higher. He doesn't suffer braking momentum, falling damage, and charred animation. Basically he's fast&easy-mode, while Coyote is normal&hard-mode. But he has difficulty on replenishing his own health: he must stop moving and pecking at bird seeds (by pressing down button). While Coyote simply grabs vitamin pills that quite often found floating in the air. If you play as The Roadrunner you can just speedrun stages, completely ignoring the Coyote. While his bonus stages revolve on the loops or what have you. Not as interesting as Coyote's, i have to say.

 

The ending is quite same. But in this case Roadrunner becomes Acme president! Not believing this, Wile immediately throws himself out of the building. Poor bastard.

Desert Demolition is very short platformer game. It contains: 5 stages (with 2 sub-stages each) and 1 boss stage. So it's fairly reasonable for the game to have tight time-limit. The graphic is quite less bright in color but quite fit with the show. The gameplay has mixed feeling. The jumping is good and precise. The balance between Roadrunner and Coyote, is half-cooked but works fairly-well. The respawning hazards are both annoying and challenging. The stages are fun to navigate. Acme's tools serve well especially to navigate the terrain. The musics are fairly good but only appear when you're running or using Acme's tools. The A.I basically dumb but can be tricky to defeat.

Overall i can recommend you to play Desert Demolition, especially if you're a fans of Roadrunner show. But beware of those explosive barrels and bombs! Like very be careful!