Wirehead For Sega CD Video Game Review

Wirehead is another Full Motion Video (FMV) game that was developed by MGM Interactive and published by Sega for the Sega CD in 1995 . It was one of the last games released for the system.



Unlike some of the other FMV games on the Sega CD this one is dubbed an "Interactive Movie"

The plot of this game movie revolves around Ned Hubbard. Ned is played by actor Steve Witting who has been in some famous movies like Batman Returns, Sutter Island and The Wolf Of Wallstreet. Ned was involved in a freak accident to his brain and had to have a scientist wire his brain (hence the name Wirehead) with a remote control. A mad scientist learns of Ned and sends men to capture Ned so his brain controller can be taken apart and studied. You have been given control of Ned's remote control and must get him to safety.

Ned Hubbard

As far as FMV games go this one is rather fun. It has the perfect tone of zany camp without it being so over the top that it doesn't work. Ned finds himself in lots of strange encounters that you as his controller have to help him get away safely. Without giving away too much of the plot Ned finds himself in trouble on an airplane, a western town, a car chase and the best part of the game when Ned comes face to face with a bear.

Ned VS Bear

Game play is your basic FMV variety. The game plays a video of Ned running out of the house and gives you the option to take Ned to the left, right, straight and so on. You only have a few seconds to choose before Ned's caught making it exciting. Once your choice is made the video resumes until your next choice comes up. A couple times in the game you will have to have Ned fight which is the same as the direction choice; kick, punch etc. The game play works pretty well, I would say Wirehead is one of the better FMV games released at the time. The biggest gripe I have is when you run Ned's brain controller down, through bad choices, the game ends and starts you back to the beginning. As you get to the end of the game and have to restart it can take you awhile before you get to where you were.

An example of the control scheme

The video for Wirehead is pretty close to full screen which is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the earlier games launched when the Sega CD came out. As always the colors are washed out but with the larger video it's a bit easier to make out what's going on. Sega had planed to release a Sega CD/32X version that would have looked much better but with the failure of the 32X the plans were scrapped.

Ned in a car chase

If you've never played any of the FMV games from the 90s this may be the one to try. Most of the FMV games on the Sega CD are pretty cheap and I bought my copy off EBay for less than 20 dollars complete with an unbroken case, and anybody that knows Sega CD games know the cases are always broken. It doesn't have problems with the controls like Tomcat Alley does and the video is some of the best on the Sega CD. I never played Wirehead when it was new so I went in with fresh eyes and despite my love of FMV games I had a lot of fun playing this game. If rate Wirehead a 7 out of 10.

Wirehead getting sexy