Producer: Mastertronic
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Derek Brewster

You are a contestant in a motorbike race. The action is viewed from behind your bike, the track scrolling towards the player gives the impression that the bikes are actually moving. At the start of the race, four lights count downwards and then you're off. The bike is capable of travelling at up to 192 mph, although it isn't such a good idea to do this when you're travelling around particularly tight bends. The speed at which you are travelling, which lap you're on and your position in the race are all shown at the top of the main screen, so that you can keep an accurate check on your progress.

The program includes a choice of track, each based on one of the world's famous racing circuits. The tracks involved are Donnington, Silverstone, San Marino, Anderstorp, Paul Picard, Jarama, Brands Hatch, Monza and Daytona The track you want to race around can be selected from the menu options at the beginning of the game. The player can ride from as little as one track right up to nine, if he/she is feeling particularly fit. There is a two player option so that you and a mate can compete against each other. In the two payer option there are just two competitors, yourself and your opponent. In this case, the screen splits into two halves so that the view from each racer is shown.

If a player mis-judges a comer during the race, their bike comes off the track and slows right down to zero. The player loses valuable time when this happens and has to get back on the road and re-accelerate to top speed. If the player hits another bike, then once again their speed drops off and more time is lost.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Player One: Q lean left, W lean right, A accelerate, D decelerate. Player Two: O lean left, P lean right, L accelerate, . Decelerate
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: minimal
Graphics: dire
Sound: rather like a very excited mosquito
Skill levels: ten different tracks of varying difficulty
Screens: scrolling play area

This is possibly the worst racing game that has come in this year, it has poor graphics that don't seem to speed up as you do (the white lines in the road go virtually the same speed 1 at 60mph as they do at 190mph) and the sound is no more than spot effects and growling. The game play is about as compulsive as a dead cat, if you don't come within the top ten in any lap on your first go then there is something wrong with you. The two player mode is its only redeeming feature. On the whole this may appeal to you are really into racing games but I'd keep well away from it.

This seems to be a very bad copy of Full Throttle, but with a two player game added. The two player game is a stupid affair, as there aren't any impartial bikers on the track and the first person to make a mistake usually looses.: felt that the game didn't really inform you enough of the things happening to your bike; for instance when in the two player game you don't know whose skidding as the noise for each person is the same, and when you hit something you don't feel like you're slowing down, but the speed counter decreases. I'm afraid Speed King II doesn't have the feel of a good bike game, and with Full Throttle at 2.99 it's got some good competition.

The graphics are incredibly bad, and the game is an awful attempt of a Full Throttle copy. The only thing that it has over Full Throttle is the fact that the characters don't flicker, and if that's two years of improvement, I'd rather keep the original. The impression of movement that was quite well put onto Full Throttle is totally non existent on this one, apart from the little stripes down the middle of the road. I think aura can rest assured that there is no competition from this whatsoever, because it's dire.

Mastertronic
£1.99

Lean and hungry for victory? Mean and menacing zipped into skin tight leathers and helmet? Sounds like you - then you should be playing this game! 'Cos this is Speed King 2, the motor cycling simulation from Mastertronic.

The game has one or two player facility and is keyboard compatible but swoons with delight at the touch of a joystick. Push it forward for faster, ease back for those tricky bends where you must lean to left or right. With one up you start last of twenty riders which gives you plenty of opportunity to blast your way through to become leader of the pack.

Two up is real head to head stuff - just feel that adrenalin! The visors eye view on a split screen gives you a superb sense of suspense and speed. There are nine different courses ranging from Monza to Daytona, each with its own particular character.

This game's built for speed! There's none of that nasty crashing or falling off which slows everything down. Okay, so the graphics aren't pretty (all the courses seem to be in deserts), and there are no sub-screens where you can assess your race status or predict the bends of the course but this game's great fun to play. Thrills and spills without the frills!

Run it again and again and again - there's nothing like a good race game. You can always beat that world record just once more, as DOMINIC HANDY and MIKE DUNN discover when they go into...

Speed King II
Mastertronic

42% Issue 36

MIKE: Take the corners, avoid the other riders, go as fast as possible, and you've cracked the game - not what one might describe as the best race game ever. Poor graphics and an almost total lack of playability make it worse than any other racing game I can think of.
09%

DOMINIC: Along the same lines as Full Throttle, only everything's worse than in Micromega's classic original. Full Throttle is also at budget price, so I'd give this one a miss.
37%

A HIGH CALIBRE MOTORCYCLE RACE SIMULATION FROM MASTERTRONIC.

Mastertronic (MAD Games)
£2.99

If you want to add a motorcycle simulation game to your software collection, look no further. Speed King if is an excellent package, crammed with options that for a budget price offers outstanding value for money.

For starters there are nine tracks to choose from, ranging from Silverstone (the easiest) to Brands Hatch (the hardest). The race action itself has been pitched at just the right degree of difficulty. You start at the back of the grid with 19 other riders to overtake on your way to the finishing line. It's impossible to crash; hit another rider and your speed plummets to zero as it does when you career off the track. While lacking in realism this makes for a better game as there's nothing more annoying than being eliminated for a tiny mistake.

The handling of the bike (there are keyboard, Interface 2 and Kempston options) is very responsive and unlike some motorcycle games does not require pinpoint accuracy on every turn; missing the optimum line or cornering too fast will just result in a rapid drop down the field.

The number of laps can be varied from 1 to 9 and as well as the one player game there's also a two-player option with a split screen display.

With such a range of options available, Speed King if will undoubtedly give hours of racing pleasure because if you find the track too simple you can go on to a harder one or alternatively cut down the number of laps.

To keep track of your progress there is an after race display which gives your placing, best placing so far, your fastest lap and the current lap record.

For the race game fanatic Speed King it can be highly recommended.