Motor City Patrol
| Motor City Patrol | |
|---|---|
 Cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Source Research & Development[1] |
| Publisher(s) | Matchbox International[1] |
| Composer(s) | Chris Gill (composer), Link Tomlin (sound programmer) |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Mission-based driving[1] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Motor City Patrol is a top-down driving game released in 1992 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.[2] Motor City Patrol was one in a line of video games that tied into the Matchbox brand of die-cast model vehicles, like police cars, ambulances, fire trucks,[3] and earth-moving construction machines.[2]
It was developed by Source Research & Development Ltd. and published by Matchbox International Ltd. The Motor City game was designed by Eddie Gill, principal designer and founder of Source R & D. The graphics were developed by Ross Harris, John Cassells and Chris Gill, with programming by Ian Richards. This was the first game developed by Source for the NES. The game style was considered by many to be the forerunner of Cop'n'Robber's games and spawned a new generation of car games like GTA.
Plot
The player essentially controls an officer of the law whose job it is to patrol one of five precincts for a week at a time. As the player gets farther and farther into the week, a larger area is permitted to be patrolled, in addition to a longer shift (time limit) to accomplish each of the mission goals.
Gameplay
The game itself is much like an early form of Grand Theft Auto.[4] Players get to drive around all day looking for speeders, robbers, and public enemies, while avoiding hurting innocent civilians. When a criminal (speeder, robber, or public enemy) appears on the precinct map, the player must either pull over or shoot the offender's vehicle. The game ends when players fail in a mission, receive five or more warnings, shoot a civilian, or total their vehicle.
After going through all five precincts (at seven days apiece), players start over again in precinct 1, on day 1, with all of their points, merits, warnings, and car upgrades intact. The game cycles indefinitely until the player loses.
Reception
Skyler Miller of AllGame gave Motor City Patrol two stars out of a possible five, calling it an "interesting but ultimately disappointing game". Miller praised the game's "sharp, detailed rendition" of city streets, but wrote that the execution of the game's "promising" concept "is derailed by repetitive objectives that never change, a difficult-to-control car and the necessity of constantly having to switch to a map screen to see the location of buildings and criminals."[5]
External links
References
- 1 2 3 4 Motor City Patrol at GameFAQs
- 1 2 "Matchbox licensees". MobyGames. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
- ↑ "Matchbox: Emergency Patrol". MobyGames. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
- ↑ "Motor City Patrol". MobyGames. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
- ↑ Miller, Skyler. "Rating information for Motor City Patrol". AllGame. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2016.