Big K


3D Death Chase
By Micromega
Spectrum 16K

 
Published in Big K #3

3D Death Chase

This is that rarity, an excellent and simple idea brilliantly executed. It seems to have grown out of the jetbike chase in Return Of The Jedi and summons a similarly pulverising rush of excitement.

The player controls a mean machine of which only a pair of gripped handlebars are visible on-screen.

The mission is to pursue and destroy a couple of renegade bikers who come into view on acceleration. The chase is conducted over terrain that becomes progressively more densely wooded until, by screen five (of eight), it's as hard dodging the trees as it is blasting the quarry.

3D Deathchase

On the early screens, a distant chopper takes off and lands to provide a difficult extra target: on later ones a tank lumbers ponderously along the horizon. Darkness sometimes provides a further hazard.

The pace is so fast, the addiction so poisonous, that one scarcely notices how well animated the bikes are and the shower of shrapnel that follows every explosion. Hitting a tree yourself provides a red-out of proportions that make you flinch with pain.

Easily picked up, the game gets ferociously demanding at its top levels, but no complaints on any score. This is one of the few programs to translate arcade fury directly to the Spectrum. Absolutely outstanding.