| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ NIGEL MANSELL'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (c) GREMLIN GRAPHICS ★ |
| A100% | Amstrad Action |
The true British classics, eh? Monty Python, Carry On films, Gazza and now, says SIMON FORRESTER, Nigel Mansell (and his fairly natty set of wheels)... Okay, so Gazza is a bit of an idiot, and Carry On films aren't exactly tasteful, but Monty Python and Nige make us all stand proud. We at AA towers awaited the CPC version of Mansell with baited breath, hoping that it would measure up to what we'd seen on other formats. When you first run Mansell, you'll see a Gremlin logo, and think 'Hmm... that's pretty'. If this is the case, the odds are you'll probably spit your teeth out once the main game gets going. You're greeted with some of the most beautiful graphics ever to grace the CPC. Forget demos - they're all the same anyway. Just spend a while playing Mansell to find out what your machine can really do with some decent software.
If you're not exactly God's gift to drivers, you have the option to go to driving school, which involves whizzing round the track a few times in order to get the hang of the game (a nice idea), and check out the competition. It's weird. The only way to describe it is that it's as if someone really loved this game and spent all their time working on it until there was absolutely nothing more they could possibly add. When you want to modify your car to handle varying weather conditions, etc, there's this lovely sideways view of the car, and any alteration you select is played out via an animated sequence. At the beginning of the whole game, you are presented with a spinning globe, stopping at your current location. The options menu has some of the most scrumptious icons you're ever likely to see, and all the menus throughout the game are joystick controlled and beautifully presented. (By Jove, I think he rather likes it. Ed) Another thing you'll notice about Mansell is that it runs at incredible speeds. Granted, the screen update is slow, but this doesn't seem to impair the game play, as it seems to create the impression that your car's going really fast. I suppose that what I'm trying to say is that it isn't at all flickery in the conventional sense. There are varying difficulty levels and the easier ones are quite unbelievably, erm, easy. Once you've been on one practise run, you'll be able to handle the car with no problems, and you'll probably find yourself well ahead of the other drivers whether you started in pole position or not. But don't for a minute you go thinking that this detracts from the gameplay, because it doesn't! We all know just how irritating it is to play a racing game, make a slight slip, and know that no matter what you do in the next few laps, you've lost and won't qualify for the main event. It makes a nice change to actually play a game where you stand at least a fighting chance of progressing. Still, even on the easier levels there are a few challenges. Overtaking, for example, is very difficult, as Mansell didn't seem to be at the front of the queue when they handed out track width. And of course, once you've got the hang of things, you can try out the harder levels. So what separates this game from the average driving game, such as Crazy Cars III last month? Well, the emphasis in CC3 is on money. That's all very well, but Mansell allows you to explore all the lovely things you can do to your car without worrying about cash. It also lets you advance around the world freely, as your progress depends on your skill rather than your luck at betting. Also, you're racing against a more logical opposition, as opposed to cars that just appear out of nowhere. When you overtake the pack, you don't have to dodge cars, just stay in the lead (unless you lap them - ahem). Flashy bits aside, Mansell is a very enjoyable game. Of course, if you don't like racing games, then don't bother, but if you do then this is most definitely one of the best there is. If, however, you're not into this kind of thing, don't worry, because neither was a certain staff writer before seeing probably the best racing game released to date. SIMON FORRESTER, Amstrad Action #90 |
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Page créée en 356 millisecondes et consultée 3792 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
