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Title Street Rod 2
Game Type Driving
Company California Dreams
Released 1990
Players 1
HD INstallable No
Compatibility ?
Submission Nick Scott (HP_Lovecraft@hotmail.com)

Review
SR2 is primarily a racing game, with an interesting premise. You buy and
race "muscle cars" in the 1960s. Except, these are not professional races.
Instead, you challenge drivers at the local burger joint for illegal races
down Mullholland drive (and similar famous roads). If you play for money,
you can spend the money on performance parts for car, to make it faster.
You can even play for pink slips, where you can win your opponent's car
(to sell, or use).

I was never a "wrench monkey", but I was interested in cars enough to give
it a try. I knew the magazine reviews had said quality was average, but
still a decent game. It turned out to be much better than I thought it
would be. Lots of emphasis is placed on upgrading your car. During this
part of the game, you're in your garage, and you click on parts of your
car to replace with higher performance parts, or tune existing parts. You
can also do repairs on damaged or worn parts, and even change
paint-schemes. Typical upgrades are for tires, exhaust, intake, gears,
suspension, carb/injection, etc.

You have to spend your money wisely, and pick the best parts for the
money. Once your car has been upgraded and modified, you drive it down to
the local burger and fries joint. There, you will find a variety of other
muscle cars, ranging from Deuce Coupes, to Mustangs, Camaros, and
Corvettes. You can ask to look at their engine, and challenge them to a
race. They may even challenge you to a race. This is the tricky part -
some cars are MUCH faster then yours, and impossible to beat, so you have
to examine there engines carefully. Also, if you pick the weakest car, the
driver is likely to refuse a race. Generally, only drivers with cars
similar or better will agree to a race.

Naturally, as the game goes on, the races go for more money, and some
challengers will only race for pink slips, and the game becomes serious.
Obviously, losing a race at this level means the game is over.
Ultimately, I thought the game was interesting, but the driving simulation
part was terrible. It was slow, and the graphics were poor. It reminded me
of running "test drive" on an old 8086 PC. The lag was so bad; it would
sometimes take a couple seconds for joystick reactions to show up on the
screen, leading to over-compensation. You get used to it eventually, but
I would have preferred a better simulation.

Overall, good concept. I've heard it was much improved over the original
Street Rod. I've also seen SR2 on a PC, and the graphics/sound are much
better on the Amiga. So, it seems that SR2 is not just a port. That said,
I find it strange that the "driving" section was so terrible. However, the
"upgrade" and "challenge" sections are well made, and easy to navigate and
use. Not recommended unless you like working on cars.