Toby Holloway

Storytelling is a bit lacking in the first 3 stages, but after that it gets a lot better. Gameplay is your classic light gun shooter, shoot bad guys until you either win the game or have to put another credit in. Graphics are good, the Unreal Engine does it well, especially for 2015, the graphics still hold up today. Just wish it had a home port...

Great game, lots of fun memories playing it as a kid. The pin and camera system is great. Camera is a ES1 standard feature, but having the ability to save your game outside of Asia nowadays is a rarity, so its awesome that this game had that functionality and actually ENCOURAGED you to do so. Graphics were good for the time but have aged a little now. Car selection has a good mix of JDM and Muscle cars. No supercars but that's not a big deal. Only issue is the that this game isn't very replayable. Outside of the pin system, there isn't much to do with only 4 tracks. And even then, 'upgrades' (which is what the pin system is used to save) are simply cosmetic parts and offer no advantage to the player. Hopefully, if Bandai Namco ever make Dead Heat 2 (and release it in the UK!) it will have actual car upgrades alongside the cosmetic parts, as well as some new cars, maybe a couple new tracks, updated graphics and most importantly keeping the PIN system or even daring to bring the Banapassport system to the UK for the first time! If someone from Bandai Namco sees this, I just wanted to say I'm a big fan of your arcade games as they've made a huge part of my childhood and thank you for that. Here's to a new generation of arcade players!