STORY / GAMEPLAY
World championship is about to start and you have to race through 16 race tracks. Each track is unique and every race includes a variety of conditions like dry weather, rain, heavy rain! Prior to a race, you may view a few details (such as the length of the race, the map to watch particular hard curves and more). Now, depending on the information gleaned from briefing, you have the option to modify your car. You can change the aero-foils to improve traction, choose gear ratio to determine acceleration and top speeds or swap tires to fit on the weather you're about to race! There is also the option to run a warm up lap or a time lap that will determine your grid position. During the race you will face professional drivers, specialists in overtaking you fast. During the race you can pit stop to replace your worn set of tires (i.e. change hard tires when the weather changes dramatically into heavy rain). The racing area is quite narrow though, making it difficult to overtake the opponents. Despite the impressive and smooth presentation of this game, the race tracks are both unrealistic and unconvincing, especially when compared to MIcroprose's Formula One GP. But that's OK, since Nigel Mansell's World Championship is not intended to be a simulator rather than an arcade formula racer. The game is great for arcade racing fans, rather than sim fanatics!
GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Amiga AGA version has more colors on-screen than the OCS (around 90) mainly at the horizon shadings but although the game's colorful visuals (roadside objects, nicely drawn cars and dashboard interior, background hills and weather effects (light rain, heavy rain etc), the view does not differ from the OCS Amiga and remains pretty flat, so the perspective doesn’t seem to work properly (thus reducing the feeling of speed. Note that the OCS and AGA versions run equally smooth and fast. As for the game's sound, the main menu tunes are nicely done while the in-game sound consists of the car engines, gears shifting and some more minor effects! I really expected more from the Amiga's sound chip but probably more memory was mainly focused on the game's visuals.
GAMEPLAY SAMPLE VIDEO
On our video below you may watch the Atari ST, Amiga OCS / ECS, Amiga AGA, MS DOS, Sega Mega Drive and Nintendo SNES versions of the game.