Previous Next

Buy yourself a big, powerful motorcross bike, find a death-defying course and take both your machine and your body to the threshold of endurance. That's the name of the game in Enduro Racer, previously released by Activision.

Put yourself and your bike's power to the test over a range of tracks, including a water course, a precipitous cliff-top and even a stark desert trail, as you race against the other competitors in the battle to become the Enduro Racer. You'll be up against ramps, rocky causeways and seemingly bottomless chasms on your outing, you'll take a tumble or two (or three, or four, or...) and your bike will take rather a hammering. Complete a course in the time allotted at the top of the screen, and you'll make it to the next section. Run out of time before reaching that elusive finishing line, however, and you'll be out of the competition and the game.

It is my opinion that Enduro Racer was underrated in Zzap! the first time round. Fair enough, it isn't a particularly faithful conversion, but play for a while and it does grow on you as a game. It looked sloppy and unprofessional when it was released, and even at £2.99 it isn't tip-top. Yet the 3D effect is much more convincing than a lot of the current driving games, such as Wec Le Mans. So what if the bikers look as though they're wearing goldfish bowls on their heads? Who cares if the music doesn't sound mean and 'bikey'? Enduro Racer's a nippy little number and a challenge to get around each of the levels. The worst thing to do with this title is to look at it as an arcade conversion - do that and you'll probably hate it. Appreciate it for what it is - a £2.99 budget game. You may find yourself ignoring its discrepancies, and sitting down to a good, hard rev-up!