Previous Next

The streets of San Francisco are famous. Not only did they give their name to that terrible '70s detective series starring Michael Douglas, but they also always seem to crop up in films whenever a car chase is required, even if five minutes before it was set in New York!

Wouldn't it be fun to race a police car through those long, windy hills, mowing down innocent pedestrians and not giving a damn? You bet your little blue flashing light it would. That's just what the San Fran police force do once a year and now you've got a chance to join them.

The race is split into five sections, beginning from the Golden Gate Bridge. Up against you is the rest of the police force. You've got two cars to choose from, but they're pretty much the same (except one of them is a natty shade of red). Unfortunately, the police haven't been far-sighted enough to clear the roads of other traffic, so you have to contend with the odd member of the public getting in your way. Bashing your horn should scare the living daylights out of them and with luck they'll move out of the way.

You only have a limited time to complete each stage. Some stages have checkpoints midway - if you reach these, you're given extra time to finish the stage. Time is wasted by crashing into things. This doesn't damage the car at all, it's just damned inconvenient. Control is by joystick only and is a piece of cake to get to grips with. You're blessed with just two gears, Low and High, corresponding to Fast and Even Faster speeds.

Cisco Heat's graphics are curious creations. From an observer's point of view they look unforgivably horrible. The road jerks its way across the screen ridiculously and the roadside sprites stubbornly clump together, making a huge person-tree-building-shaped mess. Yet when you're playing, the way the hills suddenly loom up ahead of you and then dump you beathless on their other side is nearly, almost, slightly, thrilling. So is the disorientating effect as you try to swerve round a corner and find yourself facing a pleasant sea of nothingness, having missed the turn entirely. While this is going on, the poor sound chip manages to keep up a half-decent tune and spot effects as well.

Cisco Heat is a pretty decent conversion of the Jaleco (bless you) coin-op. Ignore your first impressions (which are probably along the lines of "oh god, another pathetic racing conversion") and give the game a few plays. Chances are you'll like it much more than you first thought. It doesn't offer any clever programming techniques, nor a new game system or stunning graphics, but it's solidly put together and worth a good few plays, even if it is a little easy. If you're interested, get someone else to shell out the cash for it. After all, it's not really that good.

1. Not as graphically slick or as engaging as Vroom, but then this is more simplistic and arcade-orientated.
2. OutRun Europa curls up and dies beside this.
3. More forgiving than Super Monaco GP. No "one bump and you've crashed" here.
4. Graphics may remind you of Moonshine Racers. This is the better game though.