Impulze
£10.99/£15.99

Zooming around the world's most famous race tracks with some of the top drivers of Formula One is a daydream of many people. Now you can go one step further by taking a spin in Championship Run.

You start at the back of the pack and have to improve your position to progress in the Driver's Championship. The bends, hills, pits and hairpins of the top tracks have all been reproduced for you to get to grips with.

Your Formula One car is equipped with three gears and a display at the top of the screen provides all the information you could desire: your position, lap times, distance remaining to travel and qualifying rank.

I wouldn't describe the graphics in Championship Run as 'stunning', as the inlay does. I think 'can be a bit messy' is a much better way to put it. I must admit that the tracks and cars shoot by at a hell of a speed but there's minimal detail. Objects at the side of the road are expanded out of recognition as you approach them and going over hills is deadly; you have no idea what's coming up ahead.

What I always find extremely annoying about almost every race game on the Spectrum is that your opponents can drive 'through' you from behind. They race on as if nothing had happened and you're left picking up the pieces (sob!).

Championship Run doesn't offer anything new to the world of Speccy racing: no exciting features and the same tracks to race around as countless other driving games. Entertaining enough but it doesn't have the guts to make pole position.

NICK [56%]

Championship Run is much like Continental Circus. The cars look the same, the track looks the same and your car even catches fire if you're hit too often. Only it's not quite as good as Circus. The car sprites are reasonably well drawn, but the tracks and background 'details' are simplistic. There are two things that annoy me immensely about this game. First is the difficulty in changing gears: many times after a smash up I found it very hard to change down from third to first. Secondly, the computer controlled cars are real pain to pass - you become more and more frustrated by them. As racing games go this is a bit of a non-starter, which is a shame because Impulze's last release, Edd The Duck, was so good.
MARK [55%]

Impulze
£10.99 cass/£15.99 disk
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

It's surprising just how much cats and racing cars have in common. I sat down and drew up a list a similarities this morning and came up with loads of them. For a start there are 'laps' - they both do those. And then there are legs. They both have 4 legs. (No they don't. Ed) Don't they? (No. Ed) But they both drink milk. (They don't, actually. Ed) Oh. Er, one similarity, then. An impressive list nonetheless.

You've probably already guessed that they've given me another driving game to review. (The basts.) The screenshots are a bit of a giveaway for a start - the track, the cars, the roadside obstacles, they're all in there somewhere. And the name is very 'driving game' too, perhaps with faint overtones of an afternoon quiz show on BBC1. So what's so different about Championship Run, then? Well, um, I'm still working on that one. Meanwhile, in case you haven't encountered this sort of thing before (which, quite frankly, seems unlikely), here's what it's all about...

You're the driver of a racing car and you've got to drive round a track (one of 6, in fact) as quickly as possible without crashing. Unfortunately there are lots of other cars trying to do the same thing, so a little push and shove is inevitable. After 4 laps the race is over and, unless you've managed to reach a predetermined 'qualifying position' you're out of the running. So it's essential to overtake enough cars to get you into the next race. While doing this you have to be careful not to take too many 'hits', otherwise a time wasting pitstop will be called for. Either that or your car will fall to pieces.

Pretty standard stuff, then. Graphics any good? Not really. They're very simple and more than a little repetitive. And the game is generally very un-feature-packed. It's really just the basic essentials required to get a racing game off the ground and no more. About the only thing it's really got going for it is that it's fast. Your car really flies round the track - 'good impression of speed' would be a deplorable understatement. Fluid it's not, though.

So, if you're into rather dodgy racing games which make up at least partially for their lack of refinement with speed, Championship Run should be more than enough to plump your pillows. Otherwise you'd be advised to slip into something a little more comfortable.

REPLAY

Whiffy, spiffy, tiffy and thoroughly nifty. Prey gentle molluscs, take your seats for the great YS roundup...

Zeppelin
£3.99 cassette
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

Catalytic converters ahoy - Zeppelin's latest is one of those high-rev 3D driving games that simulates racing tracks from all over the world. You're Biff Buff, a small-time racer with big-time ambitions, and your aim is to work your way up the ranks until you get a shot at the Drivers' Championship. With one eye on the road and one on the leaderboard, you have to contend with aggressive opponents, fuel distribution and a nasty line in gradual car damage. One of the sneakiest things is that your engine suffers when you wrench it into the wrong gear.

Unlike other, straightforward tyre-grinders it makes a point of punishing you for doing something that would be incredibly dangerous in real life. This puts a bit of a brake on my natural game, which involves driving at very high speeds off the track, through signs and into other cars. The car sprites are rather ungainly, with your machine picked out in a fetching shade of purple. Roadside scenery is nothing much to speak of either. But the speed makes up for everything - the game literally rockets along, and it's a job not to press back into your seat in sympathy.

The game's not perfect, but don't hang up your fireproof long johns just yet! Overall, Championship Run is rather a corker. If you like a bit of realism with your race game, this is the one to head for.

Label: Zeppelin
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Tony Naqvi

Vroom! Vroom! The excitement is building as the drivers line up for the start of the race. Championship Run puts you in the driving seat of a powerful Formula One racing car, ready to take on the worlds number one pro drivers in a jostling battle to take Pole Position.

Colourful, stunning graphics and realistic sound adds to the excitement as you take to the well-detailed tracks to burn some rubber. But, unfortunately, that's where the excitement stops, or at least, slows down. All the fun at the beginning only adds to the disappointment as you head towards a road of disaster.

Because you're a beginner, you have to start right at the back of the grid which looks like an M1 traffic jam with all the cars (around 90!) squeezed into two lanes. Starting the race is pretty easy and usually gets off to a good start, but once a tiny mistake is made or your car slows down a bit, you've had it. The other cars are upon you straight away, bashing into you and pushing you this way and that.

Then, what makes this game difficult and frustrating us the amount of time which it takes the car to regain speed. Whenever you hit a post or are bumped in any way by another vehicle, it has a mini explosion and grinds to a halt. Whenever a bend is taken too late or the car skids along the sidelines, the result is much the same. Put the car back down into first gear, accelerate, slowly gather speed, then change the gears up again. Meanwhile, another car usually sneaks up behind you, nips your bumper, and it's back to square one again.

This process is repeated three or four times before the car actually gets going again. Usually, by the time you've completed one lap, the car is a mobile inferno. But help is at hand, or is it. We come now to the pit stop. A Championship Run pit stop consists of a few signs dotted along the middle of the road, separating the two lanes. Enter the pit stop and your car goes all fuzzy (somewhat similar to the "Beam me up, Scotty" transporter from Star Trek), wait a few seconds and it's restored, brand new. One small problem though, other vehicles are able to speed through your pit stop too, give you a bump, and zoom off into the distance, leaving you once again in a ball of flames. Championship Run looks cool, sounds cool, but is unfortunately a bit of a wash out.

STEVE:
Championship Run has a tendency to drive you up the walls. The graphics are good and the game looks, initially, like a star but annoying difficulty and slow response drag it down. I still got some enjoyment out of the game though, if only because it LOOKS a cut above the rest.