The Worst, Uninteresting NES Game I've Ever Played

For nearly 40 years, I've been playing retro games. I'm a huge sucker of nostalgia and basically live and breathe it daily. My first love was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and while I loved and enjoyed the many games I've played, one in particular was so boring that I never played it again. That game was Knight Rider. Games based on movies or television shows aren't always received positively by critics. While Knight Rider received favorable reviews, yours truly thought otherwise. Also known as Naito Raidā (ナイトライダ) in Japan, this game was released in the former in September 1988 and then in North America in July 1990. The television series lasted a total of four seasons on NBC from September 1982 to April 1986, airing 90 episodes. I'll probably do a list of my favorite episodes in a later story. Going back to the game, there were two things wrong with it. I've watched every episode of this show at least a hundred times, but having a video game based on that was a terrible idea.

The Theme Song

The theme song was composed by Stu Phillips and Glen A. Larson. At the start of the NES game, a different tune was played instead of the exact TV theme song. My theory was that Universal Television, the production company behind Knight Rider and Larson's production company, Glen A. Larson Productions, denied Nintendo permission to use that exact theme song for the game. Another reason was it may have something to do with licensing issues.

The Game Itself

There are 15 cities that you as Michael Knight has to go through and there are three types of vehicles in this game. The red ones represent the enemies, the blue represents the civilians, and finally the yellow carrying power ups. The goal is to destroy the red vehicles and avoiding the civilians. Another problem that was frustrating about this game was you had to complete a mission before time runs out. Trying to destroy enemies while evading civilians was difficult. Finally, if you use too much fuel, you will have to start the mission over again. I like KITT, but I wasn't too keen with certain games having time limits and this game was one of them. While Knight Rider received glowing reviews and praise, I felt the complete opposite. If this is your kind of game, knock yourself out. However, as for me, this is a game I wouldn't recommend others to play. The one criticism that made me dislike this game was the actual theme song not being used at the opening of the game. Had it been used for this game, my opinions about it would've been different. Not every video game based on television shows or movies has no business of being made in the first place. There were some NES games that can be either hits or misses. I like Knight Rider, but the adaptation of the 80s television show didn't meet my standards or satisfaction. Translation: I'm going to give it a hard pass.

What is everyone's favorite game or games based on a television series or movie? It can be from any game system. Let me know in the comments below. Please give this story a like if you enjoyed it. Subscribe to my page and follow me on social media. Finally, to show me some love and support me even further, please leave a generous one-off tip, which is located at the end of this story. No matter how big or small of an amount you give, it encourages creators like me to keep writing new stories.