Retro Review: Super Cars II

Developer: Magnetic Fields	Year: 1991	Played on: Amiga 500
Players: 1/2	Also available for: Atari ST	Genre: Racing > overhead

Ain’t got no rocket in my pocket

What do you get when you throw two arcade classics like Super Sprint and Badlands together and put it in the hands of Developer Magnetic Fields (which had already built up a strong reputation with Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge at that time)? Right, an awesome overhead racing game titled Super Cars II, packed with scrolling tracks and weapons to blast the competition to the moon and back.

Super Cars II is the logic sequel to the very first Super Cars, released only a year earlier. Things have improved much since that first installment. The sequel didn’t only get new tracks and polished graphics, but also a very enjoyable and much needed two player head to head split-screen mode. Fire those rockets and burn some rubber!

Cabdriver, follow the grey car!

Right from the start you’re offered to race in three different championships (I.E. difficulty levels), consisting each out of 7 different tracks. Each track has a mixture of tight corners, long and dark tunnels, gates (opening and closing somewhat dangerous shortcuts), jumps (or gaps if you don’t get it right), and even railroad tracks crossing the circuit. With such a recipe for disaster, It’s only a matter of time before you’ll find yourself crashing your beloved car. No harm done there, as long as you keep on battling with the 10 grey computer controlled cars to make sure you’ll still finish in the top 5 during each race. Fail this requirement, and you’ll get sent back to the very first track of the championship of your choice.

Driver, jump that train!

The game is not only about being the best driver around, but also about using different weapons to your advantage in order to clear the path to victory and dodging adversary weapons in the process. Your weaponry of choice ranges from unguided front and rear missiles, to front homing missiles, a super bomb (which rotates around your car and protects you for a short amount of time from all the possible harm out there) and mines you can drop on the road to surprise the drivers who are tailing you. You’re also able to install some armor, a ram (to create more damage when hitting other cars), engine upgrades and nitro to boost straight over adversaries blocking your way to success

Way cheaper than the GTA Pay ‘n’ Spray…

Between races, you’ll find yourself behind a really cool looking computer deciding if you should spend your cash on repairs or on trading weaponry and accessories. The amount of money you’ll need to blow on the repair screen depends on the damages you’ve accumulated during the race by hitting other cars, going off track, jumping into gaps in the road or getting hit by weapons of the computer controlled adversaries. There’s absolutely no obligation to repair all damages after each race, as long as you keep an eye on the damage meter. If it runs dry, you won’t even make it to the start of the next race, even if you’re the leader of the championship at that time.

Fill her up with rockets, go easy on the gasoline

The trading aspect of the game does fully live up to it’s expectation. What I mean by this is that the prices on the trade screen vary heavily after each race. Prices can even double or triple on specific items. As you’re also able to sell all previously bought items (selling prices are always a tad lower than buying prices as it should be in real life too), you can easily make some extra cash by keeping an eye on all the prices and heavily invest on low priced parts to sell them off with a good profit a few races later.

Gonna loose some points any moment now

Every once in a while, you’ll be interviewed between races by different organizations, varying from a traffic inspector, over sponsors to a health inspector. These interviews are basically series of questions with multiple choice answers. A positive interview will reward you with extra cash or championship points, whereas a negative interview will do the exact opposite. Keep in mind that the questions you’re about to see here are somewhat hilarious . I’ve played the game time and time again and it still seems that the outcome of each interview is totally arbitrary

Gotta love those long straight roads

Except from a really catchy tune during the title screen and interviews (It’s definitely worth some space on your Ipod), there’s absolutely no music during the races. This doesn’t bother a bit as the sound effects blend in nicely, with engine sounds changing as slopes present themselves on track, tires screaming when you hit corners to aggressively, explosions happening all over the track and crushing metal sounds when your car hits another car or trackside obstacles.

Split-screen action

There’s tons of fun and challenge to be had in the single player mode, but the two-player mode blows the replay value of the game through the roof. While player 1 has to settle with joystick input and a red car by default, player 2 takes control of a green car and is able to choose between keyboard or joystick controls. The two player action splits the screen vertically, without noticeable hiccups in the frame rate during races. If both cars should meet on track, the split screen smoothly transforms in a single screen to split back up again when both cars loose each other out of sight.

PlayItRetro’s final verdict:
8,5/10

Side notes:

• The Atari ST/STE version is slightly inferior when compared to the Amiga version because of fewer background colors. Every other aspect of the game is comparable
• While different sources confirm a PC version being announced at the time, it never hit the store shelves