Anco
£9.95
Karting Grand Prix from Anco is part of this
companies 'budget' range of software, priced at just under ten
pounds. The quality of this particular title is so poor that I find
it difficult to think of any positive points about the game.
The loading screen is quite good, showing a picture of a few karts
on a track, but this is the most impressive thing in the whole game.
Once it has loaded you are presented with a menu where you can
select track conditions, number of players, sprocket size, and tyre
compound. You can then select which track you want to start on.
The screen then loads in and the sounds effects start. Just a long
monotonous drone, which is supposed to sound like the roaring
engines of the karts. The graphics are also dull and flat, being a
bird's eye view of the whole track. The sprites (if you can call
them that) are terrible and the animation is abysmal, being probably
the worst to disgrace the ST's screen in a commercial title.
The control of these small jerky blocks is equally distressing, as
it is virtually impossible to get the hang of. Left and right turns
the kart and pushing forward causes the kart to accelerate. However
when you stop pushing forwards to turn around a corner, the kart
stops almost immediately! This stopping and starting is also painful
to the eardrums as the monotonous drone only sounds when you are
moving.
The various options mentioned earlier do actually
have some effect on the control of your kart. The controls are so
difficult to handle though that you don't notice that you accelerate
faster with a larger sprocket ratio, but have a lower top speed.
At first glance you may think that `Karting Grand Prix' is an
attempt to copy the arcade game 'Super Sprint' (which incidentally
has recently been released by Electric Dreams Software), however,
once you have played it you will see that this game is absolutely
nowhere near as playable or graphically and audibly as spectacular
as Super Sprint. DO NOT be fooled by the screen shots on the back of
the box if you see this in your local software store. Take a look at
the game in action if you can. Games of such poor quality do the ST
no justice whatsoever, but unfortunately there seem to be a great
number being released.
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