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 cardridge version (CPC+ only) contains the game’s map into it and the player can access to it during gameplay. This map is missing on the tape version (CPC only) during gameplay, but it is included inside the game box as a physical paper map!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The CPC+ (and GX4000) version offers nice graphics and sound. But I would expect better things here, to be honest, due to the advanced CPC+ graphics hardware! The F40 is nicely drawn and the sprite animation is smooth. The backdrops of the game are more colorful (a raster effect in the sky with color shading) compared to other 8bit versions, due to the enhanced graphics hardware (4096 colors palette and 32 colors on-screen possible). This version also support the hardware sprite capability of the CPC+ (i.e. the smoke coming out of the exhaust). The sound is just adequate, and you may choose either sound FX or music during gameplay (choice only on the CPC+). The introductory tune is fine here but cannot compare to the superior tune found on the old CPC (offering the original fully digitized rock-style track!). During gameplay, if you choose music, there is a "catchy" but rather highly repetitive tune, while if you choose FX, these are of low quality being and directly ported from the CPC (i.e. the F40 explosion when it crashes, engine sound etc).