Label: Code Masters
Author: The Oliver Twins
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon
"Get that motor running, get out on the highway". Well, not quite. In fact the only relevance that the Steppenwolf goldie oldie has to Codemaster's latest offering is that it has something to do with cars and that for some reason, it just will not lie down and die.
Grand Prix Simulator strikes back revenge of the return 2 with added enhanced features is the Oliver Twins attempt at making a good game (Grand Prix Simulator, 80%) a better one. They haven't failed, but I don't quite think they've hit the mark they were aiming for.
First of all, let's take a look at the original formula. Three cars race around one of a large number of tracks. Any number of the three cars can be controlled by human competitors. The aim is to get around three laps of the track within a time limit. The time you have left at the end of a race is carried forward into the next, building your time limit up for the next race, and sometimes you haven't a hope of completing a race without it.
That's the basic game. What have Philip and Andrew added to 'enhance it'? Well, firstly the game now features intertia, which means that no longer can you just drive around a corner, you have to 'powerslide' around it, which basically means skidding at high speed.
The second feature they've added is the damageometer. The more hits you take, be it through crashing into the side of the track or in collision with another vehicle, the more the damageometer rises. If it reaches maximum, you lose control, crash into the side of the track and are out of the running. Oh well.
The graphics have been improved, the green boxes of the original have been replaced by finely detailed racing machines. The track looks more or less the same, apart from the addition of a bridge here and there.
The sound is quite good. A tune rattles away in the background and the engine rumbles. The cars scream around corners, and there is some pretty clear speech at the start of the race, but that's about it. Then again, how many more effects could you fit into 48K?
You want to know what it is about this game that I don't like? The controls aren't quite responsive enough and your car skids just a little too much.
That is what makes it a little on the unplayable side, and that's the whole reason why I have had to drop the overall mark. It just doesn't play very well, and it's that that has solely managed to completely eliminate the fun of a multiplayer game. Shame really.
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