Crazy Cars II

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Ok, this is a racing game with minor action features so, as every one would expect, the story is quite simple. Driving an exotic sports-car, the almighty Ferrari F40, you travel across America to find evidence that will uncover a group of corrupted police officers involved in grand theft auto business! During the race (or should I say "chase") there are many forks to follow, indicating with arrows at the top of the screen which route is quicker for you. Be careful though because any high-speed collision may cause the car to explode! (No worries! You have an infinite supply of F40s!) Actually, your only real problem is to lose valuable time. There are also lots of road blocks to cope with and you must watch for the police cruisers (namely, the "legal" ones) and stay out of their way (every time you hear sirens closing in!). Note that the CPC version (only sold on tape) includes inside the game box as a physical paper map of the game’s map, while the CPC+ version (only on cartridge) ontains the game’s map into it and the player can access to it during gameplay.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The CPC offers nice graphics with vivid colors. The F40 is nicely designed, the animation is fine but it does not give you a steady feeling of the driving speed during gameplay (at least the engine sound helps here a bit). There are several (though repetitive) objects scattered around such as road lighting columns, trees etc. Note that the version running on the CPC+ computers uses more shades of blue at the background sky, while the game runs a little smoother. The sound is just ok, offering only sound FX (n o music here) and consisting of typical car-engine sounds, distant police sirens and explosion effects when you crash on an object. But what is really amazing here is the introductory tune that features the original digitized (!) rock-style tune, found only on the CPC 6128.