Previous Next

The follow-up to the best-selling (but highly overrated) Crazy Cars is imaginatively called Crazy Cars II. This time you're at the wheel of a Ferrari F40 and in a race against time to smash a stolen car racket. It won't be easy however - the people running the racket are corrupt cops!

In your quest, you will tear across four states of America at speeds high enough to arouse the attention of honest and corrupt policemen alike. You must plan your route from start to finish using the maps which show actual American roads. Make use of slip roads and short cuts to beat the time limit.

To help you, your Ferrari has a built-in radar which warns of approaching police cars and road blocks.

The graphics in Crazy Cars II are of an unusually high standard for a racing game. The vehicles are large, crisply defined and well-animated (especially the 360 degree spin). The roadside graphics are not very varied but they do move very smoothly indeed. Likewise, there is very little variety in the vehicles, only the Ferrari and the police cars are ever seen.

The sound, like the graphics, is good but unvaried; police sirens, engine noises, but little else.

Crazy Cars II is set apart from other games of its type by the addition of route planning, although Out Run gave a choice of route it was nowhere near as varied.

Although the game is well put together, and is backed up by some nice graphics, it suffers the same way as so many other racing games; it's just that bit too repetitive.

Long stretches of play with nothing but empty road are punctuated by difficult tussles with police cars.

One complaint I would make is that it's too easy to crash. Steering is slow to respond, and when it does you are often sent careering off into the road side. It is also very difficult to get past police cars which can rapidly become a major annoyance.

Crazy Cars II is certainly playable and is very well presented, perhaps, the repetition may reduce its lasting power.

I feel that, with a little revision, this could be a really excellent version of Out Run. As it stands, Crazy Cars II will probably appeal to real fans of racing games but the rest of us may not get as much enjoyment out of it.