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Ray Broady and Tony Gibson are members of New York's Chase HQ; law enforcement officers roaming the freeways in search of hardened criminals. You know, the type of criminals who don't think twice about kidnapping, murder, armed robbery, reading CU and other anti-social activities.

As Ray and Tony start their beat, Nancy's voice comes over the airwaves. There's a criminal escaping down the freeway who must be caught at all costs. With a "Let's go, Mr Driver" the cops' Porsche accelerates down the city streets in hot pursuit.

The car has 60 seconds to get within sight of the criminal's vehicle whereupon the timer resets to give another 60 seconds for the cops to catch and arrest the villain. Taking the wrong turn at forks in the road only wastes vital seconds and if time runs out, it's off the force for these two slow-coaches.

To help avoid failure, the Porsche is fitted with 3 Nitro boosters to accelerate the car to ever faster speeds. Useful for catching up with the villain when time is running low but sadly the effect is only temporary.

The actual arrest procedure is a little 'unorthodox' to say the least: the Chase cops' idea of bringing a perp to a halt is to turn his car into a wreck by ramming it repeatedly! (A damage indicator shows how much more car crunching is left to go).

For what was potentially the best of the Xmas driving licences (geddit?!) Chase HQ turns out to be rather disappointing.

The C64 version features the Spectrum's monochromatic roads, but lacks the speed, helicopter and many of the roadblocks in that version. Sound effects are poor (the skidding sound resembles an anti-theft device going off!) and there's no speech or samples. The original, bash-em-up gameplay remains very playable, but it's too easy, and too poorly presented, to be satisfying.

The Amiga version is marginally more impressive with some good sampled speech and detailed, although blandly coloured, graphics. However, as on the C64 the pace is too slow to recreate the coin-op's awesome 'thrill factor'. Lacking this, the gameplay comes to seem a little repetitive, and while initially quite enjoyable, over the longer term it's unlikely to justify its £25 price tag.

With the likes of Turbo Out Run and Power Drift setting the standards for racing games, Ocean's 'strongest' title of the year has ironically turned out to be their weakest. On the C64, use of high-res, monochrome roadside objects may have provided for better graphic definition, but speed and colour has been sacrificed.

More importantly, the game is much too easy to beat. It remains moderately playable, but there are other far more worthy racing games around at the moment.

The Amiga version is more enjoyable to play. However, I wasn't totally convinced by the game's illusion of speed and was disappointed by the lack of colour.

Compared with the Batmobile section of Batman: The Movie, Amiga Chase HQ just doesn't come close.

Presentation 67%
Rolling demo on title screen, but no sound FX/music option. Extremely rapid multi-load.

Graphics 52%
Good sprites but otherwise it's "Spectrum graphics" time.

Sound 32%
Dismal spot effects and irritating engine drome.

Hookability 59%
The coin-op name lures you in but the drab Spectrum appearance is a definite turn-off.

Lastability 38%
Five playable levels, but it's far too easy to progress.

Overall 53%
An anti-climactic release.

Presentation 59%
Rolling demo, music/FX toggle, good radio briefing screen.

Graphics 71%
A nice ST game has been ported across, but the sprites are mediocre.

Sound 70%
Good aural accompaniment. Extremely clear speech by Nancy but the in-game samples are sometimes a bit muffled.

Hookability 72%
Dead easy and straightforward to get into, the urge to bash in that first car is extremely high.

Lastability 62%
By the third level, the gameplay is too tough and the lack of graphic variety is disappointing.

Overall 67%
A playable, enjoyable racer which lacks any sparkle to hold the attention.