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Super Sprint was one of the first games I experienced on the Amstrad CPC. It was a great little overhead racer, and though the cars were nothing more than small rectangles that moved around the screen it had a reasonable amount of polish. I can remember the amazing soundtrack and the bright colours. On the surface, it appears that Bumper Ship Racing has been heavily inspired by Super Sprint. When you dig a little deeper, however, you'll find that it really doesn't deserve that comparison.

At the start, select the type of race you want to enter. You can participate in a cup, enter a single race or try for the best time. Once that is selected, you choose the class you wish to race in, followed by the cup. If you've ever played Super Mario Kart then you should be very familiar with these options. The menu is basic and to the point, but if you make a selection you are unable to go back to the previous menu option. The manual made no mention of being able to do this and nothing I tried allowed me to return to the previous menu.

Once you get through the menu you are presented with options for the ship you wish to use. The Nimble has the best turning but the acceleration is a little slow. The Radaccel has the fastest acceleration with the worst turning. Finally, the Jack has an even measure of both. Personally, I found anything other than the Nimble difficult to manage. The ships being a solid colour, while the track has some features but is mostly bland. As the ships manoeuvre around the race track they will angle as they turn, and a little burst of flame will appear as they accelerate.

The game features no music and I could only hear a couple of sound effects during play. As the timer counts down to start you hear a beep, and as the ship hits the side of the track you hear a crashing noise. As you crash into the walls all the time this becomes very annoying very quickly. With any Super Sprint clone the physics are key! Unfortunately this is where Bumper Ship Racing really starts to border on the 'infuriating'. I don't recall Super Sprint having such a steep learning curve. I can be at the beginning of a straight and start to turn, and my ship will still keep going in the same direction and hit the wall. I tried, I really did! I just could not get to grips with the movement of my ship. Ultimately what could have been a worthy clone of an 80s classic has ended up as a bit of a shambles. I think you can give this one a safe pass and maybe just revisit Super Sprint instead!

Plenty of options on the menu screen. The game adds quite a few features to the typical overhead racer...

...but the near unavoidable crashing accompanied by grating sound effect just kills any positives. Poor physics hurt the game play and, quite frankly, make it a poor experience.

Ultimately what could have been a worthy clone of an Eighties classic has ended up as a bit of a shambles.