Indy Heat

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The basic idea is simple. You take part in a series of races egainst three other cars, of which two can be controlled by others players. All four opponents hurtling around various tracks, each with its own torturous bends and niggly bits, and the one that first completes a set of laps before the others, is the winner. You car can be modified after each race, by spending your prize money. Note that you'll find yourself out of fuel too, so better spend money improving your fuel-tank capacity, or brake down to the pits every two laps to refuel while everyone else keeps zooming past you. The general rule is, you better finished at least 3rd in place to gain the minimum prize money in the pocket, in order to spend wisely on improving your car's spes. But if you really want to win, you have to play dirty too. Smashing your opponents off the track isn't just fun, it's a necessity here. Same goes for your opponents on you.
The game plays almost exactly like its arcade cousin, having most of the original gameplay features.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics are tiny but gives them a bit extra zip, and means that the tracks can be more easily designed due to the smaller sprites. The ST conversion sports only 16 colors on screen (32 colors for the Amiga), while gameplay area is a bit cropped, and there are a few details missing, as well as the information panels are set in different positions on the screen. The details aren't an exact, pixel-perfect treatment of the original, but they are quite close. In general, the details are not brilliant, but they do their job and look nice (remember the tiny sprites in Lemmings, Sensible Soccer etc). There are some nice touches, such as you also get to see the little men in the pits running about and getting run over!
During the game there is no music (found only in the arcades' version), only some average sound FX (car engine noise, collisions sounds etc) that are more than adequate for the game itself. You also get some sampled speech telling you when to pit for more fuel.