Crazy Cars

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Following in the style of Out Run, Crazy Cars gives you the chance to get behind the wheel of four different high performance sports cars: Mercedes SL, Porsche Carrera, Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari GTO. You have to drive as fast as you can to get from Florida to Malibu through six stages within a specific time limit. You start with the sports Mercedes racing against all those other cars you would rather be driving. Not only are the steep turns and the opponent fast cars to contend with but the road also has dips and bumps of varying heights. When you get onto those bumps your car jumps into the air losing traction and speed. Completing each track is not really difficult and it doesn't need too much practice. After completing the sixth course you step into the next car and race over the same courses but this time within a decreased time limit! Well, Crazy Cars doesn't really offer anything new to the genre, rather than the feature to drive different cars upon completing all stages. Its successors, Crazy Cars II and Crazy Cars III are the ones that made some difference I think!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics on the Atari ST are quite nice for an early 1987 racer. The car models are greatly drawn and are some of the prettiest car models in any racing game of the time! The Atari ST version runs in 16 colors (in contrast to the Amiga version that has around 40 colors on-screen) and plays quite good though the framerate suffers a bit. As in all other versions, the movement of the track is obtained by horizontal bands that work well at low speeds but at high speeds they simply flash from one shade to another. In contrast to the jerky movement the road twists into bends very smoothly. The game's sound on the ST is adequate with a few car engine and braking sound effects and a nice Hard Rock style introductory tune.