S.T.U.N. Runner
Like I said, I plan on jumping around a bit to avoid the monotony of me just listing every Sega Genesis game I ever played. I'm not sure if anyone reading this had ever played S.T.U.N. Runner, but this was by far my favorite arcade game. I was never big on the arcades. Which is wierd, being someone so big on games. The thing was, there was never really any arcades nearby our house, and I think overall I'd rather have the 'arcade experience' (as Sega claimed) at home on my console rather than spend time feeding a machine quarters in what felt more like a club full of teens to me than a video game heaven. Now that it's more of a nostalgia thing, with a different clientele; (Seemingly different, maybe it's all the same, only I've changed.) I really enjoy arcades and I'd love to see them make a comeback.
Nevertheless, the few times I did make it to the arcade, it was one of only two that were nearby. (That I knew of at the time.) The no longer existing arcade near the food court of the Pickering Town Centre, and obscurely enough, the arcade at the National Sports outlet of all places, also in Pickering. Our dad took us both places each time, and it was that kind of bonding experience that once again ties good feelings to video games in general. I remember not getting into many games, having a console at home I kinda felt that I would only bother putting money into the ones that had neat peripherals; Something that made the experience different than what I could get at home. That stuck with me up until recently as I have now rediscovered classic arcade games I never knew I loved, like Missile Command and Gauntlet. At the time I basically only played two games, Terminator 2 at the town centre and S.T.U.N. Runner at the National Sports. S.T.U.N. Runner was great. You sat on a real simple motorcycle setup that mimicked your avatar in-game. The controls were this F1 style wheel, with gun triggers and grips that tipped up and down so you could steer, and tilt your canon at the same time.
S.T.U.N. Runner encompassed a lot of what was visually appealing to me at the time. Being the '90s, all visions of the future and CG rendering were these low-poly 3D engines with bizarre flashy colour palettes. Kinda like what you found in Star Fox for the SNES, only not as nicely pulled off. You saw it in all kinds of movies from Johnny Mnemonic to Lawnmower Man. I guess it all kinda looked like TRON, but oddly enough not as good. Still, back in the early 90's, for me it felt like the future. Cruising through tubes in crazy looking hover-ship blowin' stuff up and racing the clock. With all the retro arcades popping up here and there, I'd love to find one of these again. MAME never quite did it justice.
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