North American box art
Knight Rider for the Nintendo Entertainment System is a 1988 video game loosely based on the 1982 series of the same name. It allows players take the role of Michael Knight and KITT, in a cross-country driving adventure. It was developed and published by Pack-In-Video, a Japanese video company. It was also published by Acclaim outside of Japan.
Video game-related tropes of Knight Rider:
- Anti-Frustration Features: When fighting Sequential Bosses, you have your shields fully restored.
- Artistic License – Geography: In the Miaminote and Houston levels, there are cacti in both levels. When in fact, there are none there in real life. St. Louis appears to be set in the countryside and the Grand Canyon is seen in the Phoenix mission.
- Bonus Feature Failure: After clearing the driving missions twice, you will be given level 3 engine, fuel and shield upgrades. That sounds nice, but due to a Game-Breaking Bug, the game will freeze before the Miami mission.
- Difficulty by Region: The level order is slightly different in Japan than international releases. For instance, after St. Louis, they go to Toronto after that level. The Japan-only level El Paso is there, reached after clearing the Houston level. International releases changed El Paso's level to Chicago, moving it in the level order to be after St. Louis. Item pickups are more scarce in the Japanese version, along with longer levels.
- Distressed Dude: Devon is kidnapped toward at the end of the game.
- Every 10,000 Points: Scoring 10,000 points will net an extra life.
- Mercy Invincibility: Averted, as a sequential bullet the frame KITT's cockpit flashes will cause the shield to take an extra hit.
- Mission Control: Devon serves as this for most of the game, pointing out where the criminals are heading to.
- Password Save: The beginning of levels 4, 7, 10 and 13 offer these if you choose not to continue with your journey.
- Shifting Sand Land: Phoenix, Houston and El Paso are all set in the desert.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Denver is the obligatory ice level, where KITT will fishtail off the road if it goes too fast on a curve.
- Timed Mission: Driving from the start to the boss is timed, and if the timer is zero, the car will slowly speed down.
- Video Game Caring Potential: If you're careful with KITT and avoid having its shield meter drop to 50% or below in the previous level's boss fight, Bonnie will sometimes compliment your better driving.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Shooting civilian vehicles, marked as blue, will deduct six seconds from the clock.
- What the Hell, Player?: If the shield meter drops to 50% or less in a previous boss fight, or if its shields are depleted, Bonnie will chew you out for being a poor driver in the weapon select menu.
