Of all those golden era shows from my youth there was none I loved more than Knight Rider (the A-Team coming a close second), but as with the vast majority of TV/film tie-ins, what could have been and what is are two entirely different things.

This game tries its best to be fun and it's about halfway there, but it falls sadly short of the mark in many areas. Knight Rider is an old TV show about a super car called KITT and his human partner Michael Knight. KITT is equipped with an artificial intelligence, various gadgets and a dry wit and together Michael and KITT work freelance to bring crooks and villains to justice. You play KITT as you drive around on a series of missions racing to destinations under tight time limits, chasing and smashing up bad guys and scanning buildings to get to the bottom of a series of bank robberies.

The graphics whilst competent are very bland, with basic and repetitive scenery. It wouldn't have hurt to have a larger scale conspiracy that sees KITT travelling to a range of locations. KITT however is perfectly reproduced with his shiny, reflective black shell and pulsing red light. The graphics glitch slightly with white bits flickering on the screen, it's not a terrible distraction but it gives the graphics an unfinished look. The sound effects are good, with all of KITT's noises taken straight from the show and the voice actor sounding just like the real KITT, but David Hasslehoff's voice-alike isn't up to much. The music is spot on, using the original theme with a mixture of tunes in the style of the show's music and more modern dance stuff.

My other complaints are poor mission designs and a ropey game engine. KITT's handling is jerky and difficult it is very easy to spin out or slide around during high-speed pursuits, it's not a pleasant car to drive at all. Collisions are very dull as hitting an oncoming car at 100mph+ does no damage and simply brings you both to a standstill. How much better could this have been had the Burnout 2 game engine been used? It is also possible to get completely stuck in or on the scenery but the game doesn't replace you back on the road, meaning you have to quit and restart the current mission! That is simply inexcusable. Meanwhile the missions are mediocre, consisting of a mix of enjoyable and boring objectives. A lot of the missions involve you driving back and forth along the same road too, it's boring enough the first time. Some missions feature parts that are so awkward and difficult to pull off that you might not persevere.

KITT has the ability to perform a turbo boost or boost onto two wheels. The turbo boost is loads of fun to use as you can speed at oncoming cars and boost straight over them at the last moment! However, the two-wheel boost is quite difficult to use when going over narrow bridges and can be extremely frustrating. The training level is one of the worst I have ever seen - you have to drive around a very boring track to beat a tight time limit, then a couple of obstacle runs are more irritating than they are helpful. Also you have to return to the stupid semi all the time (the big truck that drives KITT around so the bad guys don't see him coming) and this is completely pointless.

Although the presentation is pretty good, the loading times are very long, which spoils the flow of the game. And there's no multiplayer mode if you can believe that. Okay, we know there's only one KITT but they could have taken liberties to give us some multiplayer fun. Finally, it's disappointing that this is a racing only game as some of the levels could have featured Michael going undercover or sneaking around buildings with KITT coming to his rescue when he inevitably gets into trouble. It could have been a great mixture of driving and sneaking/shooting action.

Knight Rider is a low-budget game that is average in every respect and comes off as being bland, boring, frustrating and generally a big disappointment. I'll add it to that big pile of TV/film tie-ins marked "Could have been great."

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).