LED Storm Longplay (Arcade) [QHD] [Prototype]
116Game Info
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Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Year of Release: 1988
Game Review & Impressions
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My first encounter with LED Storm was back on the Commodore 64, with the excellent conversion created by Software Creations. It was a great top-down racer, certainly one of my favourites on the machine. It was also, however, quite different to the official arcade release (AKA Mad Gear), put out by Capcom. The home conversions feature the ability to transform between sports car and futuristic motorcycle, which seemed to be exclusive to those particular ports.
I'd never understood why these discrepancies existed. I'd put it down to a design choice made by Software Creations; it wouldn't be the first time that an arcade conversion for an 8-bit system was radically different from the original source.
Some thirty years later, I now know the answer to these questions. An article over on system11.org (http://blog.system11.org/?p=1306) reveals that multiple revisions of the game existed. Allegedly, the pre-release version of the game (depicted in this video) didn't do very well when Capcom put the game out on test, so a range of modifications to the game, removing the ability to transform, changing all the graphics and more. Clearly, this pre-release version was used by Software Creations as the basis for the home ports, but the subsequent revisions implemented by Capcom meant the final coin-op release was quite different. According to the article, an even earlier revision of the game exists, which includes the ability to fire bullets!
With mystery solved, I just had to give this pre-release version of the game a try and, as expected, it's the same as the C64 version I'd played all those years ago. The levels and design of the game are identical, and features the ability to shift between car and bike. Capcom was clearly going for some kind of Knight Rider aesthetic with the talking vehicle AI, but even this got pulled from the final release.
This may be the nostalgia talking, but I do actually prefer this pre-release version of the game. I think the graphics look better than the those in the final release, and everything seems to have more character. Either way, it's still a fun game and I'm just happy the reason for the differences is no longer a mystery!
Related Longplays & Videos
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LED Storm (Arcade): https://youtu.be/w-uFktuTtdo
Chapters
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00:00 Attract mode
01:30 Stage 1: Capital
03:26 Stage 2: Netwood Forest
05:05 Stage 3: Coral Sea
06:38 Stage 4: Big Cave Tunnel
08:14 Stage 5: Ruins Desert
09:57 Stage 6: Million Valley
11:30 Stage 7: Thunder Road
13:06 Stage 8: Marine Snow Pipe Way
14:40 Stage 9: Sky City 009
16:00 Ending
18:00 High Score
#arcade #retrogaming #longplay