Sometimes a thing enters pop culture in a weird way. In this case, it was a driving commercial that gave life to a crash test dummy. For some reason, this gave rise to the Incredible Crash Test Dummies.
This idea spawned cartoons, toys, and a few video games. Then it faded away like so many other things from the 1980s and 1990s. A lot of these properties had a quick turn around. Stuff would get popular for a few years, and then abandoned, until the internet came around and helped to keep them alive in some way.
I didn’t get into the Incredible Crash Test Dummies in the same way that I did with Spider-Man, the X-Men, or TMNT. My friend Joey had the toys, and I remember watching the cartoon. The game might’ve been a weekend rental, but it didn’t leave an impression on me. If I played it in the late 1990s pr early 2000s, I don’t remember that either.
I’m going to give this one a shot, but I’m not holding out hope for it being anything more than average. Like most of the LJN published games, I’m just hoping that it is playable. I’ll try to ignore my bias and see what this game has to offer.
TLDR:
Narrative
The NES game has a different story from the other games. Does that make it better? Not really, but it’s a fun little thing that might appeal to collectors, maybe.
The characters Slick and Spin have to save their friends. That’s about it. I wasn’t expecting much for a platformer, and the developers managed the bare minimum.
The story is fine. Normally, I would’ve checked the manual to see if the story is more elaborate, but I can’t find the NES manual online. I guess I’ll just have to move on and stop caring about who the bad guys are supposed to be.
Gameplay
There isn’t too much to the gameplay. It is a platformer that has awkward controls. This is a short game, which isn’t out of the norm for games like this. Many of the games based on licensed properties were like this.
The game is divided into several sections. The player alternates between Slick and Spin. Pieces of the player’s character get knocked off as they take damage, and your controls can get reversed.
The controls have that awkward LJN feel to them. It amazes me that these games were made by different developers, but they each have something off about their controls. I can just imagine some executive sending the developer notes about how the controls need to be more broken because that is what kids expect from an LJN game.
Overall, the gameplay is okay. It is overly frustrating at times, but not as bad as other LJN published games. This is a playable game, but it doesn’t stand out from the other platformers on the NES. It simply blends into a crowded field and does nothing to stand out.
Visuals
I don’t have a problem with the graphics. They don’t look great, but at the same time, they aren’t terrible. It just looks like a run of the mill NES game.
The characters, enemies, and levels all look okay. Nothing gets in the way of playing or beating this game from a graphics standpoint. There are some nice things about the graphics, but they’re few and far between.
The best thing I can say about how this game looks is that the graphics don’t interfere with the gameplay. The Incredible Crash Test Dummies is an average looking NES game from the early 1990s. It could’ve looked better since other games from 1992 have better graphics, but at the same time, most of the developers working with LJN were just fulfilling a contract.
Reviews at the Time
The reviews at the time weren’t all that bad. They were considered average or above average for the time. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo Power gave it the highest score.
Electronic Games gave it a 65/100. It sounds like the score should’ve been lower. The reviewer said, “the overall contest is a multi-car collision with no survivors.”
Many of the other reviews weren’t archived too well. From looking at MobyGames, it looks like this game followed a predictable trend like other retro games. It started okay, but went down as it got scrutinized over the years.
6/10. As far as LJN games on the NES go, this is an average one. It is a largely forgettable entry in the NES Library. The game has decent graphics, awkward controls, and little gameplay. It feels like a run of the mill game based on a licensed property.
Pros
- Short
- Decent Graphics
Cons
- Unhelpful Power ups
- Awkward Controls
Conclusion
Much like the property that this game was based on, I had mostly forgotten about it. The commercials are the only reason I remember the Crash Test Dummies. It didn’t have the staying power of other properties that I cared about.
Looking back at this has been fun. It reminds me of several other popular commercials and advertising campaigns that tried to work their way into other things. The Incredible Crash Test Dummies are in a similar boat as the Geico Caveman. It makes sense in a commercial, but struggles to do anything else.
Thankfully, I’m running out of LJN games for the NES. They managed to do better on the SNES. Some of those games were given the Flying Edge treatment on the Genesis, but not all of them. I am looking forward to seeing if the SNES games are better than I remember them being.
If you like this post, check out some of my others on LJN games. Such as Friday the 13th or Jaws.