Wirehead

I don't know if this game was ever released for any other formats other than the Mega CD/Sega CD, but that's the platform I've been playing it on. It's an FMV (Full Motion Video) game, which means that it's a movie that you control. The problem is that there's not really a game to be played here. The story is that Wirehead is a guy that for some reason has a receiver connected to his head so that you can control him. He apparently also has a bunch of cameramen following him, but that's never explained. The problem with the game is that all you do is press up, down, left, right or the occasional A, B or C buttons at the right time. Press the wrong button and see Wirehead get caught, and you get to play a whole chunk of the game over again. It's all just trial and error. It's never about skill. I don't know exactly how many moves you have to memorize to complete the game, but it's a whole lot. You'll probably be bored with it before you've even learned half. And after you've finished it, what's the point going back? It's not that there's a really great story there or anything. If anything, this game will be looked upon as one of those novelty FMV games that came out in the early 90's but never really made an impact on the gaming community. It's really a shame, because games such as Ground Zero Texas and Double Switch showed some promise to the genre. Imagine what they could do with the technology available today.

I think it's safe to say that Sega CD games, especially the ones that relied on pure FMV, or full motion video, were all really bad, and cheesy, and that's why i love them. Night Trap, Double Switch, and Wirehead are my all time favorite FMV video games. This game is easy to replay, but every time i do it's always exciting, and there are enough alternate paths to take if you get bored with the safe and familiar ones. The acting is, as with every FMV game, terrible, but charming at the same time. I guess you really had to have grown up with these types of games to love them. With games like these, coming home from grade school and playing them for hours on end made it seem like it wasn't so bad not having any friends. They should make more of these types of games...who wouldn't love to see a remake of Night Trap...you could play it on any standard DVD player with a simple remote.