Super Sprint was always a great game, but personally I always felt there was something missing. Collecting all those spanners and buying better tyres with them and stuff (couldn't you just see the fascinating bartering going on in the garage? "Look, I really fancy those new supergrip tyres, but I haven't got any money"..."Oh, tell you what, just give me those four spanners you picked up off the track earlier on and we'll call it a deal...") was all very well, but didn't you just long sometimes to forget about all that clever driving and overtaking stuff and just blow the opposition out of the way with a well-aimed missile? I think we all did, but now we can make that dream a reality with (pause for dramatic fanfare) Supercars!
Supercars is essentially exactly the same game as Super Sprint (or indeed Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road Racer, reviewed in this very column by this very reviewer just a few short months ago), but with a few bits added and a few bits taken away. The bits that have been added include massive tracks which scroll around the screen, over 26 different stages (ie there are 27), and a cash-win system whereby you get loads of money for winning races which you can spend on repairing your car and buying lots of sexy new doobries for it, including the aforementioned missiles. Oh, and you also get music while you drive, but unfortunately half the channels out out every time you skid round a bend, which makes it a bit annoying after a while (ie 30 seconds), although it's fun in a Paul Oakenfold dub remix kind of way.
The bits that have been taken away, mainly, are the bits which involve more than one person having fun at the same time. Unlike Super Sprint and Super Off-Road, Supercars is a one-player-only game, which means that once you get bored with just racing round and round the rather samey-looking and increasingly-repetitive tracks by yourself, there's nothing much you can do to extend the game's life. Still, it's good fun while it lasts and at four quid you're not getting ripped off. Try Super Off Road first, though.