Amiga Power


Chase H.Q.

Author: Stuart Campbell
Publisher: The Hit Squad
Machine: Amiga 500

 
Published in Amiga Power #9

Chase H.Q.

Coin-op driving games like this one never seem to get a very good deal on the Amiga - the poor old thing just isn't up to moving all those lovely big sprites around at the necessary speed for a decent arcade feel. Still, as both Lotus games and others show, you can always turn the resulting graphical simplicity to your advantage by using the free processor power to produce a game of great speed with crisp, sharp graphics and beautiful handling instead.

Which doesn't explain Chase H.Q. at all. The old 'alternating' stripes for a road effect has been employed many times in the past with some success (notably in Continental Circus), but here it flashes and flickers and judders, and in combination with the suspect colour choices of some levels can be genuinely quite nauseating.

The game lacks speed, droning along at a mediocre pace even with the turbo boosters employed, and without the pumping adrenalin induced by that aspect of the original, the thin and frankly boring nature of the gameplay is thrown into sharp relief. The game then consists mostly of a 'staying-on-the-road' challenge, which isn't helped by the fact that all the bends look the same, with the tighter turns only evidenced by the way that yor car slides away out of control for no apparent reason in the middle of them.

It's very difficult too - the later levels are next to impossible, even if you use the cheat mode thoughtfully included in the box, but you're unlikely to want to bother with it for that long anyway.

The Bottom Line

Even if you liked the original coin-op, this is crap on the Amiga. Don't buy it.

Stuart Campbell

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