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 Amiga are quite nice for an early 1987 racing game. The car models look cool and they are some of the prettiest car pseudo-3D models back then! The track's movement is obtained by horizontal bands that work well at low speeds while they simply flash from one shade to another when in high speeds. In contrast to the jerky movement, the track twists into turns pretty smoothly. Although the Amiga version performs more than 40 colors on-screen (and more than 100 colors on static screens), unfortunately the only noticeable differences among the stages are their different color scheme and horizon scrolling. The game's sound could have been better, at least on the Amiga. It has a few effects and some sampled car engine throttles but they are not so convincing! A nice sampled introductory tune is included though.