Minimalist, blocky, overall short lived racer
Highway Patrol II is a game that is very minimalist, offer you only so much in terms of gameplay; you play, as the name of the game suggests, a highway patrol officer, always on the lookout for those that break the law. In practice however, all you have to do is pursue other cars, avoid hitting the ones that happen to be on the highway, and also, make sure you don't go off-road. Graphically it's a sprite game, built out of forward scrolling set pieces, but they are fragmented well enough that they won't bother you. The number of gas stations that get robbed (adding more diversity to the chases) it's also quite small, so don't expect a full blown GTA from the point of view of the police! Other than that, well, the game is rather unpolished. The enemies will get stuck or look as if they are ramming others but there are no impacts, the graphics do clip at times, which kind of looks sloppy and also, you can only be enticed by a higher score so much, in absence of unlockables or a more meaty experience. But, nonetheless, it can be a fun racer for a while, especially of you like sprite based racers. This ain't the baddest of them all, so granted, it has that going for itself!
