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The Dukes Of Hazzard - Warner Bros - £29.99 - Out Now.
"Just a good ol' boy, never meaning no harm…." Ahhhh, the musty smell of nostalgia! Upon
loading up The Dukes Of Hazzard on Playstation, the first thing to hit you is that theme
tune - and I'm probably not the only one who found myself a little dewy-eyed as I sat
watching the opening FMV credits (perfectly mirroring the ageing hillbilly TV show) it was
like being reacquainted with old friends - Bo and Luke Duke, Daisy, Boss Hogg………what do you
mean you don't remember!?!Anyway for those of you who are perhaps a little too young to remember the TV show, The Dukes Of Hazzard was around in the early 80's and charted the wild adventures of cousins Bo and Luke Duke who got up to all kinds of shenanigans in their souped up sports car The General Lee. Set against the backdrop of Hazzard County, a quiet hillbilly community - it was the sort of show that probably looks kinda tame now against the likes of Pokemon and Power Rangers - nobody ever got hurt, the good guys always won and in fact only real damage done was the occasional custard pie in Boss Hog's face! But enough of the reminiscing - how successful has the translation from 80's TV screen to PSX been?  Taking control of The General Lee , think of mix between Chase HQ, Destruction Derby and Driver and you're somewhere near to what The Dukes Of Hazzard is all about. The older generation will be pleased to see that the feel of the TV show has been perfectly captured, with the game being broken down into a series of "missions" which are interspersed with FMV and a soundtrack which is all very faithful to the show. 
It's a pity then, that although the developers have spent so much time and love over the
FMV, they didn't pay more attention to the actual gameplay which, after the third or fourth
mission, becomes painfully repetitive and boring. Usually your objectives amount to little
more than simply "get from A to B" or "don't get caught" and I reckon even young gamers will
find their attention wandering after the first half hour. The grainy, sparse backgrounds and
poorly modelled vehicles don't help much either - and although the frame rate is kept nice
and speedy - who cares if there's no scenery?I really wanted to love The Dukes Of Hazzard but ultimately I came away feeling let down and disappointed - and I think you will too. With the driving games market already overcrowded on PSX, it's gonna take more than a nostalgic TV license to make this second rate racer stand out - you'd be much better off with Driver (which was recently re-released on Platinum) or Destruction Derby Raw. Oh well, it was good to hear that theme tune again after all these years. Now, where's my banjo……….. Eddy Vista back to the top back to the cool stuff... directory |