Sprite based racing game starring the infamous Jag XJ220.
Back in the days of yore (well okay, 15-20 years ago) if you wanted to experience a racing game then you can be sure that to capture any feeling of speed then it would have been a sprite based racer. Basically these games feature a static sprite with a few frames of animation to view the sprite from a few angles in other words from behind, from the back left corner and the back right corner. This gave the impression that the sprite (in this case a Jaguar XJ220) was steering around corners. What gave the sense of speed were roadside obstacles (also sprites) that were drawn to appear small as if in the distance and get bigger as you "moved" towards them. The faster you drove the quicker the sprites approached and enlarged. Neat, huh?
Now there were a lot of sprite based racers so competition to create the best was quite high. It's such a shame then that one of the later racing games didn't quite make the grade. Let's have a look why:
Visually it was okay. It didn't set your screen ablaze but neither was it very ugly. You could say it was merely adequate.
Movement wise the game seems to have regressed a couple of years to before Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge came out. The game wasn't sluggish but the visuals were fairly jerky in comparison to the aforementioned Lotus.
Sound is a big let down. Considering this was one of the first CD games available where upgraded sound was touted as very possible in the larger memory medium then it is surprising to hear an almost perfect replica of the Amiga' version of whistles, beeps and weedy rumble. Close your eyes and you may be forgiven that you were driving a moped and not a supercar. Let's not mention the jangly tune that plays while you drive either.
Competition for a decent racing game on the MegaCD wasn't very high due to a small amount of titles for the machine so in that respect you could say it was a pretty good game until you realise that it is essentially a port of the same game from other 16bit machines of the day where competition was very high indeed. And this game didn't come close on those machines.