Bottom of the Barrel (no.1): Chase HQ

Hello and welcome to a new series within this blog. You know, over the time I've done this blog, I've spoken a lot about the games I've liked but therein raises a question: What about the games I don't like? As I've been gaming for many years surely there has been some rubbish that has earned nothing but my scorn and contempt?

Well actually there is so may I present this series, where I talk about games I despise.
So to get the ball rolling, lets talk about a game called Chase HQ.

Chase HQ was originally released in the arcades in 1988. Inspired by the success of racing games at the time, Chase HQ offered a spin on the concept. Instead of racing against a computer opponent or against the clock, players assumed the role of a police officer in a car tracking down criminals. The player would take a set course in pursuit and catch up with the criminal at the halfway mark. From there, the player would need to stop the criminal through repeated ramming of their vehicle - but even then it was challenge to stop the criminal's vehicle before the time runs out.  It makes for a tense and  exciting scenario and, as such, was a big hit in the arcades.

Of course, I never got to play Chase HQ - nope I had to settle for  the conversion on my trusty Commodore 64. But as it turns out, I could've done better:


Look at this! The graphics are terrible, even by 8bit standards, and the sound is awful. Everything looks so stiff and dull. This is less about speeding down a highway in pursuit of a dangerous criminal and more plodding with a really ghastly sounding engine. This isn't exciting - it's downright tedious!
And the cars are badly drawn too: Why even as a child I saw the yellow car and always saw the face of a man with mustache:

And incidentally what gender is that person in the character sprite Nancy? I've seen footage of the arcade counterpart where Nancy has a woman's voice but here Nancy looks like a man - which, in retrospect, gives the interactions between him and the player character/driver a strangely homoerotic quality to it....

But I digress: I know for a fact that the Commodore 64 was a capable of doing so much better but this is a complete travesty. It's enough to out one off Racing games for life.

"Let's go Mr Driver!"?  No thanks