Lotus 3

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Lotus III is the third game in the Lotus series and it combines the gameplay aspects of its predecessors, allowing you to choose between racing opponents of Lotus Turbo Challenge or the arcade-like time trials of Lotus 2. The two-player option was retained and the music selection features returns (Patrick Phelan's soundtrack to Lotus III spawned many modern remixes). Since this is a racing game, there is no actual story. As all games of the series, Lotus III is based around the Lotus, a sports car series manufactured by the homonymous British car factory and offers the ability to choose among three different cars: the Esprit, the Elan and the Elise, each one having its own pros and cons. Note that duriong a race, all opponents will use the same car type you finally choose to drive. The gameplay is fast and progressively it gets too hard to master, so a little practice is needed.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Technically, the Amiga version features really smooth and fast scrolling and a variety of nicely detailed backgrounds. The game uses most of the graphics we have already seen in Lotus 2, but with an added number of new settings. The game's graphics are great, with each stage presented in an awesome way and the visual effects (like the fog for example) are quite impressive. Soundwise, the Amiga version offers music scores of excellent quality and this game is another good example why the Amiga's sound hardware was ahead of its time (and its competitors)! Lotus III features an excellent choice of in-game dancing soundtracks during gameplay (you can select one from your car's CD-Player) or you can choose to play with sound FX only (sampled sound FX in stereo of course). There is also a pretty nice intro theme!