Combat Cars

1994 video game

1994 video game

Combat Cars

European cover art

Developer(s)| Scangames
Publisher(s)| Accolade
Artist(s)| Stefan Holmqvist
Composer(s)| John Carehag
Platform(s)| Genesis
Release|

* NA: June 1994[2]
* EU: July 1994[1]

Genre(s)| Racing, vehicular combat
Mode(s)| Single-player, multiplayer

Combat Cars is a racing vehicular combat game developed by Scangames and published by Accolade, and released for the Sega Genesis in 1994.

## Gameplay

[edit]

The player races against other cars and can use various kinds of weapons and gadgets to damage their opponents. The game contains eight playable characters: Jackyl, Sadie Marks, Ray Shades, Mekmac, Metro 1200, Growl, Big Bad Mama and Andrew Alien. Each character has his/her own strengths and weaknesses (speed, car handling, etc.), as well as unique weapons, including a shotgun, glue spots that they can leave to slow other cars, homing missiles, mines, and others. There are 24 different tracks available in the game. The player earns money for winning or placing in races, and this money is used to calculate their score. As the player spends this money on upgrades for their vehicle, their score lowers accordingly.

The player must complete the 24 circuit tracks in multiple laps in linear fashion within a time limit if the player can reach the only checkpoint (which is the start/finish line) in a race to extend the time limit, and should the player run out of time or fail a race, the game is over. The player then must enter their name onto the scoreboard, the background being the type of environment the last race took place. After entering their name, the game resets to the SEGA introduction screen. The game also has a 2-player co-op mode.

## Development

[edit]

Combat Cars was originally developed by Scangames in December 1992 as Fun Car Rally. The game's art was done by Stefan Holmqvist.[3][4][5] The music was composed Matt Furniss, drawing inspiration from "Fun, Fun, Fun" by the Beach Boys (for the title screen) and "Get Out of Your Lazy Bed" by Matt Bianco (for the name entry screen).[3][6][7] Scangames sold the game to Accolade through MagiCom (later Funcom). However, Accolade wanted the game to have a "cooler" appearance and techno music, so the game was renamed Combat Cars, the eight playable characters were redesigned, and weapons were added.[5][8][9] John Carehag composed the soundtrack in Microsoft Works in five to six weeks.[10][7] It was mostly inspired by 2 Unlimited, of which he had a cassette in his Walkman. The exceptions were the main menu and character select screens, which were inspired by "What Is Love" by Haddaway,[11][12] and the Beach circuit track, which was based on "Justify My Love" by Madonna.[8] Carehag had about 8 minutes to make the former tracks.[11][12]

## Reviews

[edit]

Reception

Review scoresPublication| Score

|

Consoles +| 85%[13]
Computer and Video Games| 67%[14]
Electronic Gaming Monthly| 6.6[15]
Mean Machines Sega| 71%[16]

Combat Cars received average reviews upon release. Mean Machines Sega described the game as "unexpectedly addictive" and enjoyable due to its variety of tracks and two-player mode, but found the game's graphics to be "competent but unsurprising", the cars to have "lacklustre special powers", and critiqued the lack of track customisation or editing.[16] Computer & Video Games enjoyed the "pop techno" music but found that the "slidey" control system and "bland" sprites spoiled the game's fun.[14] Electronic Gaming Monthly found the game to be "a blast with two drivers", although noting some of the variety of cars had "unfair advantages" over others.[15]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Mega Drive Review - Combat Cars". Sega Magazine. EMAP. August 1994. p. 84. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
2. ^ "Preview: Combat Cars". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine. No. 66\. July 1994. p. 56. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
3. ^ a b Rasher, Road (May 31, 2014). "A couple of mysteries". Sega-16. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
4. ^ Konzack, Lars (May 2015). "Scandinavia". In Wolf, Mark J. P. (ed.). Video Games Around the World. MIT Press. p. 455\. ISBN 9780262527163.
5. ^ a b "Fun Car Rally & Combat Cars (Mega Drive/Genesis) - Same Game?". YouTube. Adam Plenty. September 28, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2025. "Lit Jellyfish (Stefan Holmqvist): It is an alpha build of Combat Cars indeed. I did the graphics. It was development by me and 4 other guys as Scangames (Sweden-Norway), and sold to Accolade through a friend's company (MagiCom, later kind of becoming Funcom). Then Accolade wanted it to be "cooler", so we needed to add weapons and more "cool" characters and change the title. I think that "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Get Out Of Your Lazy Bed" were removed mainly because Accolade also wanted all the songs to sound techno. I mean, one song is so similar to 2 Unlimited's "No Limit" that we where lucky no one sued us. Then again, at this time games was still not such mainstream form as today, so a lot of "inspired" work passed through the legal magnification glass."
6. ^ Attack, Arcade. "Matt Furniss (VGM Extraordinaire) – Interview". Arcade Attack. Retrieved 28 March 2025.
7. ^ a b "Games that have more than one soundtrack". Hardcore Gaming 101. September 9, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
8. ^ a b "Why Does This Soundtrack Go So Hard!? Combat Cars Review". YouTube. SEGADriven.com. September 20, 2023. Retrieved February 18, 2025. "Lit Jellyfish (Stefan Holmqvist): It's confusing because it actually started out more as classic Micro Machines racing. Also with more normal characters. But when we tried to sell it, the publisher Accolade found it not "cool" enough, so we were forced to slap weapons on it quite quick. And redo the characters to be more "edgy". I as the artist even got character designs faxed over. Like Sadie. Many years later I was reading an old X-Men magazine while waiting at the dentist, and almost choked when I said that Sadie was directly from X-Men. The publisher had just straight up ripped the design and asked me to pixel it. Music was also, as expected, heavily influenced by the Eurotecho hits of that year, such as 2 Unlimited. John Carehag (the composer) informed someone that the Beach track is sampled from "Justify Your Love" by Madonna. About drum "samples", there are no samples. In general, the Mega Drive could not really play those well. Plus, samples eat up a lot of cartridge space. Too expensive. By the way, the original name was "Fun Car Rally"."
9. ^ "The Dreamcast Junkyard DreamPod - Episode 77: An interview with Headhunter producer Stefan Holmqvist". YouTube. The Dreamcast Junkyard. May 2, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
10. ^ "Interview with Ziphoid". Amiga Music Preservation. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
11. ^ a b "Character Select - Combat Cars". YouTube. SilvaGunner. August 13, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2025. "John Carehag: Heh, this was cute. In my defence, I had about 8 minutes to make a track for that character select screen. The track is sampled from "What Is Love" by Haddaway. Also, the rest of the soundtrack does sound like 2 Unlimited for a reason. When going by train from my home town and up to Trondheim where we had the development kit, I had only one cassette in my Walkman, 2 Unlimited... So, sorry about that."
12. ^ a b "Combat Cars | SEGA Genesis Full Soundtrack OST (Real Hardware)". YouTube. Random VGMs. August 13, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2025. "The soundtrack was composed in around 5/6 weeks from what Ziphoid (original composer) told me. It was inspired by 2 Unlimited, with the exception of the main menu and character select tracks, which were inspired by Haddaway."
13. ^ "Combat Cars". Consoles Plus. No. 35\. September 1994. p. 154.
14. ^ a b "Super Shorts". Computer & Video Games. No. 154\. September 1994. p. 78.
15. ^ a b "Combat Cars" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. Vol. 7, no. 7\. July 1994. p. 34.
16. ^ a b "Combat Cars". Mean Machines Sega. No. 22\. August 1994. pp. 70–71.

## External links

[edit]

* Combat Cars at MobyGames
* Combat Cars at GameFAQs