Speed King

Copyright : Mastertronic | Reviewed by : Scooby1970

Speed King was the first ever motorbike racing game that I ever played on the CPC, and at the time I believed it to be one of the best racing games around. The game has a nice selection of options and a nice collection of courses to keep you busy for hours on end.

Graphics

During it`s day I thought this game was the bees-knees. However the graphics on this one have not stood the test of time very well. On the menu screen you get mode 1 graphics with all the selections, including a little map of each track that you may race. Choosing to ?Race? or ?Practise? puts you straight into the game, though you also have the ?Preview? option which lets you run through the course without doing anything but sit back and watch all the bends and twists.

The graphics, while colourful, fast and smooth scrolling are very very blocky (Mode 0). You drive a bright yellow bike made up of just a few blocks, and your driver in brown with a black hat looks like a Lego-man. There is no scenery as you go by, but the mountains in the background move from left to right and the sides of the roads change from red to white to give you the feeling of speed.

All relevant information about your lap times, speed, position and gear are all displayed at the top half of the screen.

Sound

There is a jaunty little ditty that plays on the menu, which is very short and repeats endlessly. The in game effects are basic whining noises of an engine, which to be fair are not the worse engine noises I have ever heard on a CPC game.

Gameplay

During its day, this was a Mastertronic masterpiece, and having it in my memory, I always thought it looked better than what it really does. Having spent hours learning the tracks and overtaking the computer-driven racers, this game always played really well for all its graphical faults, and today it still plays well with all things considered.

The computer opponents are predictable, and do knock you off your bike quite a lot, but once you take the lead it`s just a matter of hanging on and keeping there until you finish your laps.

Overall its got some good gameplay and you could easily play this game for a couple of hours. Also, the track layouts for the various tracks are pretty much as they are today on Silverstone etc., so if youre used to modern racing games, then these tracks will be familiar.