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While the shoot-em-up genre has stagnated, the equally simple-minded race-driving game goes from strength to strength. Let's burn rubber once more...
T he nice thing about race games like Crazy Cars is that you can sit down and play them immediately, often without even referring to a manual, because they use an age-old-concept; one that is easy to relate and understand.
We all know what to expect from a game of this genre, don't we? Push forward to accelerate, steer left and right to avoid other cars and pull back when you want to stop, right? Wrong. For, as you may well remember, Crazy Cars II tested your map-reading skills as well as your driving, and now Crazy Cars III goes into even more depth.

Take several desperate and reckless drivers with powerful cars, a perfectly innocent public-road system and some transport police, and you'll have some idea of what a typical Crazy race involves.

The first thing you notice when you begin driving in Crazy Cars III is that the game generates a good feeling of distance between you and the cars ahead. Far along the road in front of you, dwindling tail-lights of the leading cars appear and disappear quite realistically on the horizon; an effect which was not carried off as effectively in Lotus Turbo Challenge II.

Get it loose
Different weather conditions also have a greater bearing upon the game than in Lotus, with each climate producing its own car-handling characteristics as well as a change of scenery. Weather conditions are sometimes generated randomly, so it's possible to have snow falling upon the cacti as you drive along desert roads.
Different towns also have different scenery and who is to say whether or not you will race at night or in the daylight hours? A large range of scenic views is to be found within this game, each one of them well-drawn and moving past very swiftly... now I want a real Lamborghini!

Cash, as well as climate, is important. Prize money for finishing in pole position is double the race entry fee, but for finishing third you make a 50 per cent loss. So winning the race outright is practically the only way to make a profit. The only alternative is to wager other competitors in your race that you will finish before them. Unfortunately your opponents are very good – you have been warned! Money won at a race can be used to improve your car through the purchase of various add-ons, which is a welcome feature. The hardware store sells new and faster gearboxes, wet-weather tyres and super brakes, which are all ludicrously priced but improve your car's performance greatly. The most expensive is, surprisingly enough, the good old nitro fuel, costing an incredible $50,000. For your hard-earned money you get 10 seconds rocket-powered mayhem, which increases the car's speed by about a third. This has the effect of practically turning it into a low-flying aircraft, so I suppose we must grudgingly accept that the race is more interesting when nitro is used rarely.

Babylon business
It's a fair cop – even in America. Police are to be found patrolling the highways, giving you even more hassle. Apart from the patrol cars which chase you when you accidentally (or otherwise) hit someone, there are also radar-operated camera speed traps along the road.

Police wielding hand-held speed-detectors also give chase frequently. They are excruciatingly annoying, but give the game much more flavour. And, as they try to ram you off the road (because you've been, er... ramming other people off the road), the game bears a very strong resemblance to Chase H.Q. (your car even becomes labeled with a huge arrow saying 'Offender' on it). N.B.: a sneaky trick to play when the cops are around is to shunt an opponent into a police car, thus turning him into an offender.

All in all, Crazy Cars III has amazing durability because it keeps on changing, the races run smoothly and quickly, and terrain is presented really well. From the word go, you have a challenge on your hands. It is certainly much harder than the recent Lotus and Jaguar race games, but in the long run this just means that you'll carry on playing.
Paul Tyrell

Title Crazy Cars 3
Game Type Driving
Players 1
Compatibility A500+ or better
Submission Terry Everest

Review
Crazy Cars 3 is a good racing game and the best of the Crazy Cars
series without question.

The manual explains that you are unemployable in the normal manner and
that your sole possession of value is a Lamborghini Diablo which you have
spent your life savings on buying at a knockdown price. You have no option
but to compete in an organized league of illegal highway races to earn
yourself some cash and get rich.

You start in division 4 of the league and race against all sorts
of underworld characters who are all after the same thing as you. Each
race is situated in an American state or city and each has a huge entry
fee as well as a cash prize. The method of making money is either to win
the race or place but often coming second or third may not get you a
profit at all. Luckily you are able to gamble as much money as you dare
against the named characters and whoever beats the other gamblers in the
race picks up the pot of bets made. This is an excellent way of increasing
your income, or of losing it, but if you beat just one of the other
gamblers you get their wagered amount (unless your wager is lower in
which case you get that amount from them.

The graphics in this game are not spectacular but they are fine
and the general presentation is very good, some attempt has clearly been
made to make the courses represent the locations at which they are set.
Also the sound is fairly good.

Progression is achieved by winning money so that you can afford
the extortionate fees of the bigger races and prize money increases with
fee and difficulty. Once you have earned $50,000 you can buy a pass
for the end of division race. This is a tricky time trial on a desert
road covered in trucks going both ways and cattle horns but once completed
you progress to the higher division (ie 3).

There are a number of upgrades to purchase for your car and also you
sustain damage in races which has to be repaired at the garage to avoid
low car performance. The upgrades are a bit too expensive but you will
need the right one or two to succeed in higher divisions. The famous
nitro boost capability is the most extreme and it costs $50,000. The
acceleration it gives if carefully used can propel you into first place
and win you the race. Obviously it only becomes financially worthwhile
in the harder, later races where the prize money starts to get to the
hundred thousand dollar mark.

The game is pretty good and the driving experience is intensified
by competition with your RIVALS and also with the police. As I have
mentioned the races are highly illegal and the cops have a number of nasty
ways of catching you out. The most common is the highway patrol which
may be moving or stationary, the cops will come after you very fast if you
exceed the limit which is 110 kph. This makes for some tense action as
you desperately try to keep going even when cops keep ramming you, and
your rivals are near. Only determined driving will shake off the cops and
they do you loads of expensive damage.

As you progress, new and improved upgrades can be bought and there are
radar devices to allow detection of cops and improvement of the car. The
police however are increasingly vigilant and have such things as speed
traps and cameras which cost you in automatic fines - these are pretty
inescapable.

This game is very addictive I thought and you may try to progress to
higher divisions or you might just keep playing it again and again for
the quick win and the thrill of the chase enhanced by large sums of money.

If you appreciate gameplay over other considerations this is excellent
stuff and although it is hard, and you will become despondent of losing,
this is a great pick up and play game with hours of progression towards
the top division, and its well finished too. I would recommend this to any
real racer or amiga fan.

I will give it 70% which is a fair accolade from me.
"Will turn you into an obsessive gambler and speed criminal for several
hours a week if you let it" tel.