Label: Micro Style
Author: Geoff Crammond
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas
Looks pretty bad, doesn't it? Wire frame graphics have never been much of a winner on the Spec, especially when they're supposed to move with amazing speed etc.
Well you shouldn't be such a Mr Mopey, should you? Stunt Car racer is a whopper feast of motor excitement. You're a futuristic cross between Nigel Mansell and Mad Max, driving for kicks on the road to oblivion. Well, on a number of assorted circuits of oblivion in fact.
Yup, in the deserted nowhereland of tomorrow motorsport has turned decidedly mental. Hod rods have been cross-bred with tractors and formula one cars and the result is more like an armour-plated rocket on wheels than anything else.
There's a wealth of options to investigate before you have to brave the rigours of a full blown race with, one of the computer controlled psychotic opponents. For a start you can take a leisurely (?) practise drive through the courses to get a feel of the curves, bumps and jumps. And if you're not barmy, you'll want to use every last second of practise time available perfecting your driving style.
Once you're in a race situation, it's goggles on and foot to the floor. A big crane lowers you - none too gently onto the track. If you're going to stand any chance in the race, you'd best hit the track with the wheels spinning. Like any decent motor, your car can be steered left and right. It's got no gears, but a stonking great turbo charger instead. Faster or faster still?
Chances are that your opponent, Road Hog, Bully Boy (ooer) or any of the other funnily named drivers will manage to edge ahead on the first straight. Now the game becomes a test of nerve.
Holding down the turbo button, you scream into the first corner and smash the front of the car on the camber. The hairline fracture along the top of your roll bar extends from left to right, indicating the amount of knocks your car has taken. If it gets all the way across, you've had it.
Gaining on the other guy, there's no sense trying to ease gently in front of him. Just stamp on the gas and barge him out of the way. The little flag at the bottom of the screen goes green to indicate you're in the lead just as you hit that little concealed bump and plunge off the track down to earth. That's the end of your race.
Unlike loads of race games, you can get yourself back on the track if you're lucky. A momentary lapse of concentration can leave you skidding along the edge of the elevated plat forms, but good luck and brave steering can sometimes save the day.
The wire frame graphics shift at a respectable pace, and though the step-size it sometimes a bit silly, there a definite feeling of high octane excitement.
Label: Hit Squad
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter
The one and only race game of the future has finally been released on a budget label. Reviewed as a full price game in December 1989, Stunt car has finally made it back onto the shelves.
Stunt Car Racer has you in the driver seat of a stonking great turbo charged racing car. Racing against the computer or a friend, on a track consisting of a raised bank with the race layout on top and a variety of tracks with humps, jumps and banks, you must compete to progress But be careful - the tracks will fling amateur drivers to the ground below the track.
Damage is shown by a hair line fracture which slowly creeps across the rollbar. When it reaches the other side, your car is kaput and the race, for you, is over.
Stunt car racer was one hell of a racing game at full price. Now at budget it is a game that no-one can afford to be without.
ALAN:
Stunt Car certainly is a great game with a great sense of speed!
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