Domark
£9.99/£14.99

It is fifty years since a nuclear conflict decimated the population and turned the world into a Mad Max style wasteland. But from the ruins has arisen a new sport: heavily armed and armoured cars race round tracks built on the rubble of the holocaust in a zone known as the Badlands.

Three cars participate, although up to two of them can be human controlled in this fast and violent game from the creators of Super Sprint. Badlands is set over eight different tracks, but things aren't as simple as they sound. You have to finish the race in first place else one of your two credits is lost (lose both and it's Game Over).

Apart from human and computer driven cars that fire machine guns and missiles at you, obstacles include hairpin bends, oil slicks, sand banks, collapsing buildings and falling power lines. The first few tracks are fairly clear of these hazards, so you have a chance to concentrate on watching out for the spanners strewn around. Collection of these allows you to purchase add-ons at the end of each race: missiles, tyres, turbo rower and shields.

I'm a great fan of this type of game, with this and Super Off Road Racer (reviewed last month) I'm being spoiled! Though Badlands doesn't have the detailed graphic style as Super Off Road Racer, the cars and backdrops are more colourful. Another bonus is that the cars in Badlands are more controllable, and it's easier to avoid disasters! Super Sprint with guns is how I would describe Badlands. I personally prefer Super Off Road but this game runs a fairly close second (mainly 'cos it's more violent).

MARK [78%]

It's a pity Domark have chosen to release this game at around the same time as Virgin's Super Off Road Racer, the two games are rather similar. This is nowhere near as detailed though. Badlands is a lot of fun, due to the demolition derby aspect of the gameplay, if a bit easy to complete. The tracks are nothing special - some are simply boring and others are spiced up a little with tunnels and jumps (wooo!). It's a pity you can't actually destroy the opponents - blast 'em with your gun and they just flash and carry on. Badlands is a good conversion, but the coin-op isn't innovative enough to make the game really exciting.
NICK [59%]

Tengen (Domark)
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Linda Barker

Hi. I'm the new girlie and I don't like this driving lark at all. In fact, it scares me silly - I cower in the back seat with the window open in case of emergencies. Even racing round a screen makes me feel a bit funny. But just for you I've persevered and got round all eight tracks without throwing up once! (Well, I was impressed anyway.)

But all eight tracks of what, I hear you ask? Well, this game of course - a sort of post-holocaust Super Sprint. Come on, take my hand and we'll go off for a good old gander at the future together, shall we? Right, were here. but what's there to see? Well, if I'm not very much mistaken, right over there are the Badlands, a series of tracks which've been built in the devastated nuclear landscape (apparently after the bomb drops it's going to be the survivor's top priority to get a racetrack together. All perfectly natural and sensible it seems to me). It's 50 years after all-out mega-destruction then, and this is where it's all happening.

There are eight tracks in the Badlands, but that's about all - it's a bit of a boring place really, unless all you want from life is some good racing (in which case its probably dead exciting. Me, I'd rather have a good chippy and some flowers).

So how's the game work? Well, to start with I'd better say you can play this one on your little ownsome or, if you're really lucky, with a friend. Other players can join in at any point (so it your pal comes round in the middle of a race there's no problem) which also works out pretty handy if you think the other player is crap and boring - you can just ditch him (or her) and start having some real fun. Having said that, this is one of those games where it's much better fun with two (unless you're one of those aloof and enigmatic - ie boring and unsociable - types of course).

The eight tracks correspond to eight levels of play, and the plan is to get round the lot in superfast time. If you come last out of the three cars more than once you lose a life (at least one is always computer-controlled). Lose all three lives and it's game over, matey.

Okay, so you're tucked up nice and cosy in the hot seat and ready to go. In true Super Sprint fashion (those of you with shorter memories might be better off comparing it to last month's Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off-Road Racer or numerous old Codies games) you're looking down on the complete course which neatly wraps around to fit on the one screen. Some are a figure-of-eight shape (with slightly wobbly bits where your car goes under the track and you can't see what you're doing), some are simply a loop.

What they all have in common though is a black featureless surface (so the little coloured cars and icons that litter the track show up quite well) and rather more complicated static background graphics. There aren't many controls to worry about (just Accelerate, Brake, Left, Right and Fire) so you won't need to over-exert those precious brain cells (a good thing, especially for old people like me).

The first couple of tracks should prove pretty easy - use your time to pick up any strange spanners you see lying around. These may look a bit stupid but they're in fact incredibly useful - get enough and you can earn extra big points with which you can buy all manner of tab and groovy additions to your car. You can make it go even quicker or arm it with more weapons and shields (sorry, I forgot to mention - this game has a Roadblasters-style shooting element tacked on). What they won't do is help you dodge all the things littering your way - oil slicks, missiles, nasty sharp turns, falling masonry, barriers which have a tendency to shut the minute you reach them and horrible, horrible tunnel things which (as I mentioned earlier) force you to drive blind and can be very confusing.

So, what's the verdict? Well, Badlands is a pretty straight coin-op conversion (it seems like about the 60th Tengen one Domark have done now) and is pretty much like any other overhead-view track game you could mention really (though with the addition of shooting to spice things up). The graphics aren't brilliant, but it's still fast and fun and just a little bit addictive - especially when you get onto the freeway overpass where there's a good roundabout. (Well, I liked it)

Basically what this comes down to is another racing offshoot of Super Sprint, and while it's not the most exciting one around by a long shot, it's all right. Mind you, the graphics do tend to smack horribly of budget game territory - it's not half as pretty, fun or clever as Ironman for instance, with its bumps and nicely animated little 3D trucks.

There are some neat touches (like the helicopter that picks up the ruined enemy cars once you've trashed them) but it's not especially recommended - especially since the vast majority of you will own at least one very similar game already. Still, it's no great embarassment either.

REPLAY

Wherein rumbustious Rich realises racy re-release reviews, raises faters, rend rhinoceroses! (Darn.)

Hit Squad
£3.99 cassette
061 832 6633
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Ivan 'Iron Man' Stewart's Super Off Road Racer? Professional Grand Prix Simulator? Supersprint? Ring any bells? BADLANDS?? All (but the Codies' effort) coin-op conversions, all basically the same game, and now all available for less than the cost of a very small, decent(ish) meal at your nearest Little Chef.

And as ever, these overhead racing things always tend to be fun, and especially with a friend. Fun, in fact, in this order.

1) Super Off Road Racer
2) Badlands
3) Grand Prix Sim
4) Supersprint

Supersprint and Grand Prix sim were pretty crap anyway, so let's not bother scrutinising them any more. Then came Off Road Racer - a game that simply oozed quality (as opposed to bad programming). Here you didn't race around on a black void - you raced over bumps and jumps. So the handling of the car and the graphics had to compensate - there are 112 different truck sprites the game can choose from. And believe me, it's effective - give or take quite a lot of colour, you could probably almost mistake this for the arcade original. (Well, after a few jelly babies, anyway). The satisfaction of successfully pulling off a jump, deliberately ramming an opponent from the track or skidding around a corner to the relatively boring accelerating and braking necessity of Badlands is like riding a BMX pulling wheelies, jumping from kerbs and skidding over grass as opposed to riding it sensibly along the road.

Of course, both games involve the usual expedient of collectables-as-you-drive in order to soup up your vehicle, Badlands perhaps winning here with a case of 'if at first you don't succeed, buy some missiles, blow up your opponents or even annihilate some of the scenery instead'. Both also feature eight tracks (Badlands' are again more varied) but at the end of the day, Road Racer is more fun, and that's (let's face it) what counts. Wibble.

Label: Domark
Price: £9.99/£14.99 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jason Naik

Tengen's Line Of Fire coin-op conversion is a fast, pacey and armed road-racer game. Set in the future, fifty years after a nuclear war, the sport of sprint car racing has turned into a deadly battle to the death.

Action begins in the city where you need to watch out for the oil spills, boulders and the occasional crosses (they're supposed to be wrenches but they look more like crosses to me), which appear on the screen. Pick them up and you'll gain enough credits to customize your car (between tracks), with turbos, missiles, shields & tyres. No go-faster stripes though. Still, you can't have everything. Follow the arrows as they appear, and you can't go wrong. Trust me my son, just trust me.

Eventually you'll come rushing up to a wall. No, this isn't the end that you so justly deserve, but in fact it's a tunnel, taking you to another section of the track. Just try not to change direction while you're driving through, or you'll end up scraping all the paint off your wings (and presumably, skin off your skeleton!) The normal fire-power of your car can only slow the drones down, but if you gain enough credits you can wipe out other racers with your missiles. But watch out for the helicopter as it speeds to your fallen opponents aid. Overall the graphics are excellent, but the cars are a little disappointing. Music is good but who needs sounds once you've got a battery of missiles to unleash - just the thing for rush hour traffic. All in all this post-apocalyptic vision of the future makes for a teeth grinding, nerve snapping game.

Label: Hit Squad
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Ed Laurence

Ooh, those gritty future realities do get into the spots other genres just can't touch, don't they? Everywhere you look... At books, comics or films, there's some bloke dressed in grey with a dull metallic road car and a big gun. Not even your Spectrum is safe from the onslaught of these post-Mad Max road warriors. And to prove it the coin-op Badlands has now been released at a fine budget price.

Badlands is the follow up to possibly the best race game ever from Atari, Super Sprint (well, the best one which includes the words 'Super" and "Sprint" in its title anyway). This game saw a three-quarters overhead view of a race track, with four cars, each one a different colour, haring around trying to complete four laps of the circuit before anyone else. Badlands is the logical (???) progression, casting the sport into the far future, probably after a holocaust or something, and gives the drivers guns, armour and a death wish.

Now the object is not just to beat your opponents to four laps, but also to beat them to a pulp in the process.

However, all this technology does not come cheap. In order to buy new weapons or shields, or even standard gear such as acceleration or higher speed, you need to be in possession of at least four golden wrenches. These wrenches are found of random points on the course, although no more than one will appear per lap. and extra bonus wrenches are earned by breaking course records and top lap times.

Extra missiles can also be found by blowing up some of the destructible scenery around the tracks.

Badlands is quite a fine conversion of a coln-op which is knocking on a bit now but has still lost none of its appeal.

There is still the all-important two-player mode (one player on Joystick, one on keys) which improves the fun no end. although it might have been fairer to have two joystick players.

Graphics are good despite the small sprites and there's some nice colour, while movement is smooth. Sound is fair enough, nothing to get excited about but nothing too dire either.

Badlands is quite a speedy and highly enjoyable racer the like of which has not been seen since the original Super Sprint At budget price, there is no reason to miss out on this (unless you've already got it).

ALAN:
Welcome to the order of the Golden Wrench! Bit too complicated for me. My fave race game is still Chase HQ and nothing has changed my mind so far. Badlands is a different animal though and although the graphics and game speed are pretty good it didn't retain my attention as much as it did Ed's.

Virgin Mastertronics's 'Ironman' or Domark's Badlands - Which is King of the Road?

From the post-Apocalypse rubble they came - men and women so hard that they used barbed wire for dental floss. No more Mr Softy Super Sprint larks for them. They armoured their cars and mounted cannons on top and took up the dangerous and ruthless pastime of racing in the Badlands; the desolate ruins left after the nuclear conflict.

The bare bones of the game are identical to Super Off Road. You (and a friend) play on eight tracks. Finishing behind the computer drones loses you one of your two credits. Occasionally gold wrenches appear on the track and can be picked up by running over them. These can be used to buy upgrades between races.

Controls are the same as Super Off Road, except there are no Nitros, but this is compensated for by your roof-mounted cannon. Shooting another car slows them down and also makes them drop any wrenches they may have picked up. so you can nip in there and take them for yourself (ha!).

Reviewer: David Upchurch

RELEASE BOX
Amiga, £24.99, Out Now
Atari ST, £24.99, Out Now
IBM PC, £24.99, Imminent
C64, £19.99 cart, Out Now
Amstrad CPC, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Out Now
Spectrum, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Out Now

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 3/5
1 hour: 4/5
1 day: 2/5
1 week: 1/5
1 month: 0/5
1 year: 0/5