Remembering classic games: Thrill Drive (1994)

Konami’s 1998 racer Thrill Drive is only 50 per cent an arcade driving game, the other 50 per cent is a harrowing cautionary tale about road safety. In spite of a warning to drive “sensibly and carefully” in real life before every race, Thrill Drive relishes and sensationalises every crash, playing audio of screaming passengers, showing you a dollar value for the damage caused and flashing up an image of a terrified driver, one of whom looks alarmingly like Barry Chuckle.

It’s not the only bizarre aspect of the game, the other is the selection of allegedly thrilling vehicles available. Your choices include a Volvo V70, a Fiat Barchetta and a bog standard Vauxhall Corsa. We can only assume that research for the car list started and ended with the developers glancing out of the window at the office car park. 

That’s not to say the Thrill Drive isn’t fun to play. Quasi-simulation handling, a decent sensation of speed and three long open road tracks, each with their own distinct international flavour, made this rare game well worth a try if you could track it down. We particularly liked the separate ‘Worst Drivers’ high score table for those who racked up the most property damage. Finally an arcade leaderboard we could top.

Still, the abiding memory of Thrill Drive will be the excessively violent nature of the crashes. Clearly Konami took a look at the nearby Mortal Kombat machines and their gruesome fatalities and decided it was high time that driving genre got in on the tabloid-bothering action, with accident replays showing the driver launched through the windscreen and flopping around on the bonnet. Our recommendation is that every 17-year-old be forced to play Thrill Drive before they take their driving test. British roads would become safer overnight.