Zzap


Super Scramble Simulator
By Kixx
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Zzap #73

Super Scramble Simulator

If you ever saw the old TV series, 'Kick Start' you'll know what motorbike scrambling's all about. In Super Scramble there are fifteen tough courses with incredibly steep hills to climb and classic obstacles like logs, skips, cars and even lorries. You need precise control over your bike to avoid stalling, crashing into obstacles, skidding or landing awkwardly - all of which remove valuable seconds off your time limit. As well as accelerating/braking you have three gears (fire with up/down) and you can lift the front/back wheel (fire with right/left). Moving the joystick vertically affects your position on the plan view below the main side-on display.

The C64 version was coldly received in issue 52, with Phil annoyed at "the way the slightest error in your riding is mercilessly punished". Stu found the game far inferior to the classic budget game Kikstart 2 (written by the same author. Shaun Southern), replacing the two-player option with "mediocre graphics and three gears which add nothing to playability". Still, Phil thought it "would have been a fair budget release" and even now it is, you'd still do better to try and get hold of Mastertronic's Kikstart 2. It's a tough, frustrating game that's not that fun to play, particularly with dull graphics, although when you are playing there is a kind of compulsion to completing the courses.

On the Amiga, the gameplay is even more frustrating and makes very poor use of the machine. Moreover, for such a simple game the need for two disks and lengthy accessing simply defies belief.