ZX Computing


Enduro Racer
By Activision
Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in ZX Computing #38

Motorcycle mayhem in Activision's dirt track hit

Enduro Racer

Enduro Racer is quite simply the best motorbike racing game I have ever played and it destined to follow in the tracks of Gauntlet and Commando as a chart-topping coin-op conversion.

The game is a race against other bikes and against the clock as you've just 60 seconds to complete the circuit!

You're moving through the field nicely as you hit the first bend. Then suddenly you notice a pile of rocks across the whole road! Almost without thinking you pull the bike back into a wheelie to leap the barrier and sail over to land safely on the track having just missed a tree and bike busting pile of boulders.

Enduro Racer

More bends, hills, boulders, trees and jumps lie in your way as the track flows ahead of you in startlingly clear graphics. As our hero navigates a tight bend he puts his leg out to steady the bike and if he comes a cropper the crash is almost painful to watch.

If he runs out of time before he's completed the circuit the game ends with a percentage score showing how much of th course you've navigated, which drives you back for another game especially if you've just missed out by a narrow margin.

Should you succeed, then you've no time to celebrate, not even for a lap of honour, as you're literally thrown into the second of the five courses. This time the action's set in a desert with dust clouds streaming from your back wheel as your tear around the course.

Enduro Racer

In the first race, the bikes did little to get in your way but this time you'll have to avoid land rovers trying to mow you down as well as more jumps, fallen trees in the middle of the road and massive boulders that almost block the road entirely!

To add to your problems you have only 50 seconds added to your time left from the first course in which to go the distance and qualify for the next three races.

The gameplay is quite superb with the joystick or definable keyboard controlled bike responding immediately to your controls but the real test comes when you land after a jump, hit a bend and have to steer through three bikes to get into position for the next jump. The only way to do it is to feel your way through in a game that's so realistic you'll almost need a crash helmet!

A Monster Hit.