Amiga Power


Indy Heat

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Stuart Campbell
Publisher: Tradewest
Machine: Amiga 500

 
Published in Amiga Power #11

Indy Heat

Storm's Indy Heat is a conversion of the Super Sprint-type coin-op from the same people (arcade-wise) who brought you Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off-Road Racer, it's, erm, alright.

Okay, I suppose you want to know a bit more than that. Which means I'm going to have to start making things up. Right, here we go. Indy Heat is the little-publicised fourth game in the Indiana Jones series, and in it you control a little Harrison Ford sprite who, uh, runs around with his whip trying to retrieve the Great List Corduroys Of The Incas, but finds his progress hampered by giant aubergines with anti-tank rocket launchers. [Cease this utter drivel at once or you're fired - Ed]

Okay, so I'm a crap liar, but it just goes to illustrate the fact that there's almost nothing to say about this game that you can't work out for yourself by looking at the screenshots. What they don't show is that it's a speedy and playable racer, catering for up to three players at once with a choice of two control methods, both of which work pretty well. It's almost identical to the earlier game except there're no bumps and hills to worry about and no bonus icons lying around to provide you with tricky decisions about whether to go for them or concentrate or getting round the course.

It has a less convoluted track sequence too, the ten courses coming one after the other and not really offering any increased difficulty as they progress (in fact, the last one is the easiest of the lot). This (coupled with the minimal difficulty setting) means that you'll see every track by about halfway through your third game, and with no points system to keep you playing your interest will probably cease at that stage. With more players adding a competitive element (especially when you sabotage the others' refuelling pitstops by crashing into their cars) it'll last a bit longer, but this lacks even the fairly limited depth of Super Off-Road, and what does remain of it (the chance to customise your car) is negated anyway by the option which allows the computer to automatically make the selections for you. This is a competent enough conversion, but it's a bit limited as a full-price game.

The Bottom Line

Not exactly terrible, but a complete waste of money if you're going to be playing it on your own. Even if you're not, Super Off-Road is lots better and available on compilation.

Stuart Campbell

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