Raid 2020 (1989, NES) by Color Dreams

Current Any% Leaderboard (speedrun.com)

Unlicensed game?  Check.

Color Dreams?  Check.

Abomination of mankind and the worst game ever?  Not so fast!

This is NOT a good game, let’s be clear.  But as the Color Dreams releases go, Raid 2020 is far from their worst.  Though the controls are clunky, the hit detection isn’t the best, the graphics are sub-par and the music is lame, this is very much a playable and passable video game.  Released on the NES in 1989, this title puts the player in the role of Shadow, a cyberpunk detective who must hunt down and kill drug dealers across a variety of stages.

This game certainly has a variety as well.  In the 1st stage, you must kill every bad guy, and to find some of them you must pause to force them to spawn.  Stage 2, you’re in a hovercraft or a boat, shooting down helicopters.  Stage 3 puts the player in a weird space scene where they must, once again, kill everything, and then stage 4 puts you in outer space, shooting spaceships!  None of these are done particularly well, but they are playable, if not mediocre at best.

I won’t go so far as to say I enjoyed this speedrun, but I certainly didn’t hate this game.  I’d say, if you’re looking for a quirky and weird speedrun, you can definitely do worse.