Zzap


Rad Ramp Racer
By Mastertronic Plus
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Zzap #65

Rad Ramp Racer

Fancy a race? I'll ride my BMX and you can scoot along on your skateboard. What do you mean that's an unfair contest? It's what Rad Ramp Racer is all about anyway. The screen is split horizontally with a skateboarder at the top and BMX rider below.

Each must earn as many points as possible within the time limit by doing jumps and collecting tokens. Pressing fire propels you forward through the horizontally scrolling course. The half pipes at each end of the course allow you to make a quick turn via some furious joystick waggling.

You can also move up and down to avoid barrels and flags - crashing wastes valuable time. Performing stunt jumps (flipping back and forth in mid-air by waggling the joystick) from ramps earns loads of points.

You can 'race' against the computer, using either BMX or skateboard, or go head-to-head against another player in a three course cup. Either way, the simplistic action soon gets repetitive: there really isn't much to do apart from avoiding obstacles and jumping a few ramps. Even the easy-to-use course designer (to redesign all three courses) can't save the day.

The game's most 'radical' concept is that you sometimes get points for crashing, while the 'bonus' objects are apparently worthless!