City Connection by Jaleco ©1988

Number of Levels: 6 (loops)
Password/Save: Nope
Replayability Rating: High.
Other Features: Two-Player alternating mode, oddball theme.

Well, here we have quite an odd title from the game wizards at Jaleco, makers of uh, Bases Loaded, and not much else that you've heard of most likely. It's a little bit Pac-Man and a little bit Rad Racer. But before we go into describing this fun little game, let's hear the story, directly quoted from the manual: "You're on the run! You've broken into an exclusive paint store in New York City. You're carrying leaking 10 gallon cans of paint. Now the cops are after you!! You must drive over every mile on the highways in New York City before you can catch the boat to England. From there you go on a tour of the world, trying to avoid the police and leaking paint all over. Your only defense: Pick up the oil cans left on the highways and shoot them at the police cars. Send the police cars into a spin and knock them off the road."
Confused yet? This highly unlikely story makes me believe the original concept of the game in Japan was far different, or there just are a lot of Japanese paint thieves running around in their sports cars.

The first level gets the basics down of the City Connection experience. You have to cover the three levels of road with paint while dodging all obstacles and shooting the cop cars with paint cans. But be sure to watch out for the damn cat/baby! I call it a cat/baby because the manual says it's a cat, but it sure looks like a baby to me. Anyways, that thing is sure to pop up at any time, so you have to make quick movements to get away from it. It's also pretty difficult to finish the tips of the pieces of road, because if you don't jump right away you fall to a lower platform. The longer it takes you to finish the level, the more your jumping ability decreases. Also, look out for the balloons, if you snag three of them, it will warp you a level.

City Connection doesn't offer a lot in the way of mind-boggling graphics, but it is easy to learn and quite addictive. Of course, any game I enjoy has to have some cutesy touches. When your car crashes into something, the screen forms a circle of hearts around it. The music is also catchy (in an annoying way) and the cat/baby is also somewhat cutesy. There's also a funny scene at the end of the first level of your character reveling in his victory with a smooth Laramie cigarette.

After completing the New York level, you continue on to such exotic locales as England, France, Germany, Isreal, and finally Japan. This guy is serious about running from the cops with his precious paint!
Perhaps the most annoying aspect of City Connection is it's lack of a proper ending. The game loops upon completion of the sixth level. What's worse is that the game does not become visibly more difficult after it loops. But back to focusing on the coolness of this game: you can shoot at cop cars, you get to hit cat/baby's, and your Daihatsu explodes into hearts when it crashes! What more could you ask for?
My final rating? I'd give it an 82% out of 100. It's one of those games you are likely to find cheap at FuncoLand, and will give you a good afternoon's worth of entertainment, if not become one of your favorite games.

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