Developed by Gray Matter and published by Mindscape in 1990, Mad Max on the NES is basically a loose re-telling of the story of Mad Max 2 (the film, aka The Road Warrior in North America). The opening crawl in the game is basically the same opening words as the narrator of the film.

Mad Max is a driving game, viewed from overhead, with a scrolling apocalyptic landscape. In some respects it’s kinda like Mad Max meets Micro Machines, with small cars harassing each other.

There are two play modes in NES Mad Max: “Road War” and “Arena“. Road War is an open map where you must survive and find the Arena, and in Arena, you have to destroy all enemy cars to win. There are two more Road Wars and two more Arenas to unlock, if you can beat the first ones.

The car moves in eight directions, and – in Road War mode – you can also throw dynamite out of the car window. Which you need at the very beginning of the game as you are stuck in a ravine with tyres blocking your only exit (which only really exist to teach you how to use dynamite to unblock your passage).

Moving enemies are very challenging to hit with the dynamite. Static outposts are easier to target, although these tend to lob a great deal of dynamite in your direction, so you have to be on your toes (tyres?) when attacking. The outposts re-spawn quickly too, so you soon figure out that they’re a waste of explosives.

The biggest problem you have is getting enough fuel to keep your car going. The game’s manual gives you a map of the first level, showing where all the gas stations are. And… good luck with that, because I managed to buy next to fuck all…

In Arena mode you don’t have to worry about fuel – just on knocking your opponents off the track, or into the gaping holes that intermittently open and close on it.

Mad Max is a simple game, but it is playable and can be absorbing, if you like this type of game. Unfortunately, there’s no two-player option.

If you want to see what a “real” Mad Max game looks like, have a gander at the 2015 version by Avalanche Studios. 😉

More: Mad Max (1990 video game) on Wikipedia