MeekinOnMovies On..."The Organ Trail: Director's Cut"

The Organ Trail: Directors Cut
The Men Who Wear Many Hats
IOS / Android
2.99
By: MeekinOnMovies

I fancy myself something of an...ethical gamer. While it accounts for barely a drop in a bucket, when I find a concept, or studio who’s work I either enjoy or find innovative, I figuratively turn into that omnipresent meme of Fry: “Shut up and take my money!”. I’ve felt this way about a few devs and publishers. Rockstar annually gets 60 bucks from me, regardless of my interest in “L.A Noire” the drunken stumblings of “Max Payne” and being baffled at what, exactly, a “Red Dead Redemption” actually was. Visual Concepts is another, having bought the NBA2k series long before I understood that a 15 Foot Jumper wasn’t Shaq’s nickname for his penis. Heck, I’ve mentioned the indie dev MDickie to warrant some sort of restraining order.

So, when I came across the “Oregon Trail” parody “The Organ Trail: Directors Cut” on the iTunes app store, I was instantly smitten. The accurate-for-the-era graphics, the concept of running from Zombies along the same trail our ancestors used to colonize the west, the punny name, it...spoke to me.


For those of you who didn’t have a good childhood and don't know what I'm talking about, the original “The Oregon Trail” is sort of like the “Citizen Kane” of edutainment titles. It tasked you with loading up your Conestoga wagon with food, ammo, supplies, and up to three custom-named friends, and had you hit the road west on your way to the Oregon territory. Primarily made for education, the game was a boat, well, wagon-load of fun too. Chalking the wagon and floating, fording the river, and “X has dysentery” all entered the pop-culture lexicon. While it’s sequel “Oregon Trail II” and it’s human digitized graphics was ultimately a more compelling and complete title, “The Oregon Trail” remains a classic - and also ripe for parody.

If the “Organ Trail: Directors Cut” was simply a cheap cash-in that directly copied the gameplay and added in zombies and lols, I’d still probably enjoy it on the level someone enjoys a crappy Nicolas Cage flick, or rocks out to Wham in their car on the way to work - namely as a guilty pleasure. What I did not expect, was to get a capital Q quality game that expands upon and adds to the “Oregon Trail” formula - transforming what should be a throw-away impulse buy into an enthralling, challenging, and surprisingly haunting gaming experience.

After an introduction that, uh, introduces you to Clements, you make your way to Washington DC where you meet up with your custom-named pals, have to deal with a particularly...brutal piece of housekeeping, you’re given a chance to stock up on tires, mufflers, ammo, food, medkits, and so on,  then hit the road to the west in your beat up...wait for it....station wagon. While a lot of the game features just typical one-for-one swapping of ye-olden supplies like Wheel Axles and Oxen for things like fuel and car batteries, “The Organ Trail: Directors Cut” also adds some really interesting features that would be right at home in the original game, well, sans the zombies.

The additions to the "Oregon Trail" formula work out really, really, well, too.  Firstly, you can upgrade your party leader with a variety of buffs including the ability to shoot faster, reload quicker, and some others. You can also upgrade the station wagon with damage resistant tires, chainsaws to cut through hordes of zombies (This game's equivalent of having to cross a river) and a few other perks too.

Beyond that, there are a few mini-game diversions to liven up the experience, all mostly based around either shooting moving zombies from behind cover ala “Space Invaders”, shooting stationary bandits (who shoot back) from behind cover ala “Hogan’s Alley”, and well as scavenging and recovery missions which have you tapping to move your character as you shoot your way to the next piece of loot or treasured item you’d be richly rewarded for. There’s also a ball-cup guessing game, and a few sections that have you avoiding zombie animals and knocking over bandits on motorcycles using the awesome stopping power of a 1980s Station Wagon.

It’s worth nothing this game is also, incredibly hard. I’ve died roughly 2 bazillion times and have yet to beat the game on the normal difficulty. Trying to maintain rations, food, fuel, ammo, the health of your party and keeping the wagon in a working state is a colossal undertaking, and as you go on the silly little 8-bit zombies become very threatening when you’re down to your last sliver of health and need to go scavenging for a blasted car-battery.

Believe it or not the audio/visual component really ties the game together. The authentic early 80’s PC sound effects and soundtrack go a long way to making your really long journey haunting. I played this game on my back porch in the cold, smoking a Black & Mild, and I found myself looking around my surroundings very alertly at every noise. The graphics are quintessential of the era too, with gorgeous splash-screens of destroyed cities, farms, and towns looking like something straight out of the windows 3.1 version of MS paint.

In an era of information and graphical overload, it’s pretty amazing what some haunting chiptunes, a steep difficulty curve, and the human imagination can conjure up. At the least, it accomplished “The Organ Trail: Directors Cut” and at that, my friends, it over-achieved.

4.5 stars