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Knight Rider
System: Windows
Company: Davilex
Price: $29.99
Just in time for the huge resurgence in popularity of the leather-jacket/ultrafast talking car TV series comes Knight Rider: The Game. While there's talk of a Knight Rider movie, it's at least a year away from theaters. Until then, a computer game, developed by Dutch software company Davilex, puts KITT the talking sports car and his roguish driver, Michael Knight, back on the road.
The graphics in this game are nice, with some nifty details such as blades of grass that fly around when you drive on the shoulder, skid marks and smoke when you slam on the brakes and slide, sparks when you run up against walls and guardrails. Sadly, the damage modeling is nonexistent. No matter how much you bang KITT, the car never gets a scuff.
They couldn't get David Hasselhoff or William Daniels to reprise their roles as Michael Knight and KITT, but they got a voice actor who could sound just as one-dimensional as Hasselhoff and just as HAL-like as Daniels, so that's all good.
The missions are fairly dull: Go from Point A to Point B. Leap obstacles. Ram enemies until they're totaled. Take a bow. Still awake?
Don't buy this game unless you absolutely must have a keyboard-driven sports car simulator. You're better served grabbing a discount copy of Grand Theft Auto.
The good news is Davilex decided to shut down its in-house software development team after this game came out and settled instead on contract labor to produce its games.
The bad news is Davilex holds the rights to develop a game based on Miami Vice. Just in time for that huge resurgence in white linen suits, pastel T-shirts and sockless loafers. Maybe that game will resurrect Philip Michael Thomas' acting career.