Akira is regarded as one of the best and most influential animated movies of all-time. Every few years the movie receives an anniversary release on DVD or Blu-ray and sells tons of copies around the world. With a movie with so much content and popularity, it would make sense that a game would be made of it right?
The version we are going to discuss today is the one developed by International Computer Entertainment (ICE) for the Commodore Amiga. Of course we have to go into more detail about that since there is a back story for that in itself. You see the original license was actually purchased by THQ and was originally supposed to be released on every major console. ICE was hired to work on the Game Boy port and as part of the agreement ICE would also develop and publish a version of the game on the Amiga themselves. This would mean there would be two different Akira games developed by the same developers on the same system. THQ agreed as they have no interest in the Amiga system at all. Ultimately, the THQ version was cancelled all together and the only Akira game to actually be completed and released was the version ICE published themselves on the Amiga and CD32.
The game itself featured 5 levels with the first being the infamous motorcycle scene, but instead of chasing down a clown motorcycle gang, you just drive around picking up gas canisters, hitting traffic cones, and jump over broken parts of the highway all while avoiding obstacles. This level is notoriously difficult as many have never seen the game past this level. It was so bad that even magazines were having to ask the developer for pass codes to see the later levels and review the game. One thing that bugged me was the final level of the game in which the final boss battle takes place at the hospital and not the stadium like in the movie.
Overall this game is really horrible, I know there are other things that I could have talked about, but all you have to do is look at the reviews of the game from that time and you’ll see why. CU Amiga gave it a 18%, Famtisu had a 17%, and Amiga Power gave it a 16% and said the only positive thing was that it came with a free t-shirt. If that isn’t proof enough for this to be buried in the Gaming Graveyard, then I don’t know what to tell you.
