The Last V8 Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
191Developed by David Darling and published by Mastertronic in 1985.
Foreword: The first couple of minutes of the video is dedicated to Rob Hubbard's great music that he wrote for the game. You can skip to the actual longplay by clicking here: 2:27
The Last V8 back story involves some hokum with a nuclear war some time around the year 2008 and the fall-out has reached levels where it is almost acceptable to go outside again, or something like that...
Whatever the story, I think it borrowed the concept from Mad Max, with "The Last V8" being a reference to the car Max drove as being "the last of the V8 interceptors".
The game is split into 2 (very short) stages.
The objective of the first is to navigate some very narrow, winding roads and to reach the end of the stage before an atomic bomb is dropped, obliterating everything in sight.
Despite the world having meant to have been crippled by nuclear fall out, the first stage of the game feels more like a pleasant country drive; there's even a house with patio furniture and a swimming pool!
The second stage has no time limit, but you must drive around an irradiated city zone in an attempt to find the science base. Certain zones have high radiation that will drain your car's shields and there are a number of dead-ends and false routes to avoid.
For a game from 1985, it looks and sounds very good indeed, courtesy of Rob Hubbard.
Unfortunately, the gameplay is ruined by the terrible control scheme for the car. Just about every top-down racer I have ever played sticks to the convention that UP accelerates, DOWN decelerates, whilst LEFT and RIGHT rotate the vehicle clockwise/counter-clockwise.
Instead, in The Last V8, you press a direction on the joystick and your car will turn/accelerate in that direction. If you're pushing in the same direction that your car is facing then it will accelerate, whilst pushing in the opposite direction will brake. This is just really, really awkward, especially when going round corners because you can end up swapping directions and crashing into nearby scenery.
Aside from the crap controls, the game is ridiculously short and can be completed in a couple of minutes, assuming you can get to grips with the controls.
I never owned this game back then and I'm really glad; I'd never have had the patience to play it for very long.
Enjoy!
#retrogaming