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The mayor's daughter, Jennifer, has been kidnapped and he's desperate to save her. So desperate that, yes, Chase HQ's Broady and Gibson have been given a new car, powerful guns and even a police helicopter to supply them with bazookas! Can the city survive this explosive onslaught?!

Chase HQ's new controller, curvy Karen, kicks off the SCI by telling our favourite demolition derby duo that some suspected perps are escaping in a red Porsche 911. A picture of the car is shown on the sophisticated comms unit and the chase begins.

The world's most dangerous cops have replaced their battered black Porsche with a red Ferrari lookalike. It's got a fully automatic gearbox, plus nitro fuel injection for bursts of superspeed - to begin with, the car has four nitros which last just a couple of seconds when activated. As the car accelerates into action a timer starts counting down; if the duo fail to catch up with the Porsche before time runs out the chase is called off (one of three continue-plays can be used to resume the action, though). Once the villain is sighted, more time is added to allow the pair time to apprehend him.

Rather than ramming the car off the road, Broady leans out the window and starts blasting away. As you'd expect, Broady is also free to blast any civilians who get in the way. To arrest the perp, the damage gauge must be increased to 100%, the car bursting into flames. Further help is provided by the bazooka dropped by a police helicopter: if Broady manages to catch this, he gets a couple of supershots. Once the 911 is stopped, a screen comes up to show the cops cuffing the perp and rescuing one of the girls, but Jennifer is still missing.

The next stage of the investigation is pursuing a van. The same casualty-intensive procedures are used to bring the perp to book, but this time the baddie has some friends. A group of Hell's Angel bikers try and block the way, so they must either be avoided or shot. The next criminal drives a limo and is protected by black 911 Porsches. Interrogating him reveals one of the kidnappers is driving a truck. His associates hurl barrels out of the back to stop Broady and Gibson, and once the truck is destroyed an attack helicopter swoops down to finally stop the investigation. Survive this and Jennifer's location is revealed to be in a warehouse. This final level gives you just one nitro and no continue-plays to make a frantic race across desert roads to rescue the mayor's daughter. Any mistakes will almost certainly be fatal!

C64 SCI lives up to its early promise. The speed of the graphics is astounding, surging past Turbo OutRun in the speed stakes with a brilliant range of hills, tight curves and tunnels to test your driving skills.

Then there's the number of vehicles on the road, it's a lot more crowded than Turbo and with Nitro activated it gets very hectic. But of course the best feature is the enemy: catching up with them usually isn't too difficult, but bringing them to book will require a lot of persistence and skill.

Making that perp's car burst into flames gives a great feeling of satisfaction. My only slight reservation is that the inter-level screens are merely adequate: they could've been better. But this is without doubt the best driving game out, finally knocking Turbo OutRun off its perch.

Not only because it's a better game (partly due to the coin-op it's based on) and technically superior, but also because the cartridge eliminates the loading hassle between levels. No tape-based game can compete with this, while the ability to simply slam the cart in and start playing instantly means it's going to see a heckuva lot of action.

On the Amiga front, playability is just as high. The ICE team have certainly improved since Turbo OutRun, packing in an incredible amount of graphic detail and, more importantly, ensured the game is overflowing with action.

The car handles well, while the sensation-heavy traffic is almost overwhelming; there's a huge amount of stuff all moving incredibly quickly, including plenty of obstacles such as boulders and crates.

With some superb sonics this truly is a dedicated Amiga game, not an ST port, and it's a pleasure to play.

C64 SCI brings across the sheer exhilaration of the coin-op, barrelling along in hot pursuit of determined criminals. In Chase HQ 1, it was often depressing when you realised you wouldn't be able to reach the criminal within the time limit: now that you're armed, you can be a fair distance away and still bring the perp to a halt.

What's more, you *do* have the speed sensation (even without the Nitro on!) which brings across the coin-op's atmosphere and feel incredibly well.

The Amiga version is very slickly presented, although loading times are a little long. The graphics are worth waiting for, though, with a very attractive horizon fade matched by decent speed of movement and the impressive sight of eight vehicles all on screen at once.

Sound is also good; for once, the car features a decent engine roar. This version looks a lot like the coin-op and has faithfully kept nearly all of the extra features which made that so much better than the original Chase HQ.

Oncoming traffic to worry about, buses crosses your path, and the extra effect of waves crashing over the sides of the bridge as you rocket along all show off the professionalism of the game's translation. Any slight worries about long term challenge with only five levels were quelled with the arrival of Level Two: fighting your way through the horde of Hell's Angels is tough enough before getting anywhere near the bad guy's van.

A mighty tough challenge but so much fun to be had!

Phew, what an improvement over Chase HQ! With Mark Kelly's technical advice and Steve Crow's game graphics the C64 game resembles Turbo OutRun with guns! Programmer Grant Harrison ensures it all comes together brilliantly, the graphics are truly remarkable with an incredibly fast 3D road and plenty of scenery flying past.

The cartridge is great for eliminating long inter-level pauses, and although the arrest screens are a bit disappointing, they'd be impossible on tape. This is certainly one game you won't be zooming through on your first go; it's so tough. Even catching the first criminal is a difficult task with all the traffic that gets in your way. Then it takes ages to blast the criminal's car to a standstill, with it gradually catching fire until it's a burnt-out wreck.

The Amiga version is slightly easier but just as impressive with a scorching soundtrack and smooth 3D graphics, beautifully detailed and frighteningly fast - a vast improvement over ICE's previous Amiga race game conversion, Turbo.

On both formats, it's the sheer pace of the action that gets the adrenalin going. As well as being a technical masterpiece, SCI is a thrilling challenge.

Presentation 86% Nice loading screen, demo, scrolling scene-setting text, interlevel scenes and reasonable disk access.

Graphics 92% Lots and lots of beautifully detailed graphics moving very fast. The red sky on level four is particularly impressive, but it's all a massive advance over the ST-ish Chase HQ.

Sound 90% A plethora of pounding tunes and authentic-sounding FX.

Hookability 93% Instantly and compulsively playable.

Lastability 90% It's not easy and rescuing Jennifer is likely to require plenty of practice.

Overall 91% A superb conversion.

Presentation 80% Instant access is a godsend in this type of game. Keys, normal or two-fire-button joystick options plus three continue-plays. But animated, inter-level presentation screens are mediocre.

Graphics 95% As fast as you could want with a superbly detailed car, plenty of traffic on-screen, a re-arm chopper and some superlative end-of-level perps.

Sound 88% A rousing, vaguely Turbo OutRun-esque tune accompanies the action.

Hookability 95% Instant access, instant addiction!

Lastability 92% It's a tough game and completing it will require a heckuva lot of practice.

Overall 93% Undoubtedly the race game of 1990. Superb!