Released in arcades in 1976, Atari’s original Night Driver is an outstanding example of doing more with less, simulating first-person driving through nothing more than a series of scrolling rectangles. The new Night Driver, coming soon to Android and iOS, looks like any other mobile racing game.
Nothing wrong with a mobile racing game – I’ve enjoyed my fair share. It’s a genre that works pretty well on touchscreen platforms. It’s just that this…
…is so far removed from this…
The original emulated using Mame, via Dick Moreland on YouTube.
Using the same name feels almost disrespectful. Maybe it’s just me. They had a cockpit version of Night Driver in the arcade at the local swim club my mum used to take us to when I was little, and I played the hell out of it. It’s a special memory for me. To others it’s just a name, I guess.
Here’s the official description of the new Night Driver:
Inspired by the original, Night Driver offers a range of different slick and powerful vehicles that players can race down the illuminated highway in an exhilarating wild ride under the night sky. Upgrade and enhance your car’s look, performance and style in this reimagined arcade revival that features breathtaking locations, a 360 degree showroom and multiple game modes.
Comments
One response to “Atari Brings Back Night Driver, Sort Of”
I am waiting to hear what the gimmick is….
First they kickstarted a console.
Then crowdsource investors for a Switch port
Then they got into cryptocurrency…
I was half ecpecting this to be a crypto miner malware at this point.
The screenshots and the trailer don’t even look like the same game, let alone the original game.
I feel like the new game could do with the retro 80s wireframe look of the trailer and a drivers-seat view to bring it that little bit closer to the original.