Automobili Lamborghini

"Are you ready for the ride of your life? This car circuit racing game will have you driving the car of your dreams: a Lamborghini Diablo! Trade in your econo- car and burn up the fast lane! You'll have your choice of four different race styles; six challenging racetracks; manual or automatic transmission; and other options such as pit stops and multi- player split screen mode.
Race styles: Arcade, Tournament, Championship and Time Trial! Feel every bump and crash with the Nintendo Rumble Pak! Play with up to four players in split screen mode! Save your record times onto a controller pak! Best playability a racing fan can dream of!"

This is one of the marmite racers on the N64. Some like it, most don't and with good reason. A sequel of sorts to Lamborghini American Challenge on the Snes and Amiga but plays nothing like the original. The only thing in common is that it is a racing game by Titus featuring a Lamborghini.

The game has quite a few modes but the only ones we are interested in are the Championship and Arcade modes. You start off with a choice of the Lamborghini Diablo or Countach with more cars unlockable for wining both modes. To unlock everything you need to complete the champion ship on both normal and expert difficulty settings which also unlocks reverse tracks. There are also basic and pro mini championships in arcade mode that need to be completed on both difficulties.

Now lets race! This is where it starts to fall down. The controls are hyper sensitive, although you can change how sensitive in the settings and by default the slightest touch will steer the car hard left/right making it quite difficult to control. Its highly likely the other cars will be smashing every which way at the start and will keep knocking you about if you get in their way. The first championship is not so bad with the other cars finishing in different positions so not much challenge on the score board. During these races you can enter the pits for more fuel and new tyres and the game will warn you if you need them. However, only the last track may fuel be an issue and tyres are not a huge issue on the novice handling so you can skip the pits and gain some time as the opponents do usually go in at least once. The basic arcade track set is also not bad but the pro set is where the challenge heats up and the unlocked Porsche just cant do it due to lack of acceleration although great grip but thankfully we have the Bugatti Eb110. Then its onto Expert difficulty.

Expert difficulty is where the challenge really starts and can be quite frustrating as you have to deal with slippy car handling. I managed to make it through the championship with the unlocked Ferrari 512 Testarossa but only barely as the other cars were flying off way above there class making this unlocked car seem less than great. Maybe Arcade mode should have been done first for the Ferrari F50 but I'm not even sure the other cars could beat it as even the unlocked McLaren F1 struggled. Anyway i finish the final arcade set with the F50 to unlock the Dodge Viper. Expert mode was not fun. Some tracks feature short cuts but they also feature corners so not always a blessing. With everything now unlocked I show two single player races just to show off reverse mode and the Porsche and Dodge not used during play.

There is no credit roll to show. For whatever reason Titus didn't want you to know who was behind development of the game. Interestingly though, the game manual shows screenshots of the game known at the time as Lamborghini64 which does have a manual credit roll button in the options so this option seems to have been patched out just before official release. Another thing to note is that the Arcade mode Time records look to be set unbeatably low so even though I finish first in all three races , I don't come close to making it onto the score board. The top time for Arcade Novice Basic is nine minutes and with the F50 I finish in 14. (Not Recorded)

00:00:00 Attract Mode
00:00:15 Novice Championship Track 1 (Lamborghini Diablo)
00:05:45 Novice Championship Track 2
00:12:55 Novice Championship Track 3
00:18:38 Novice Championship Track 4
00:26:02 Novice Championship Track 5
00:31:20 Novice Championship Track 6
00:39:50 Novice Arcade Basic (Lamborghini Countach)
00:50:05 Novice Arcade Pro (Bugatti EB110)
01:04:50 Expert Championship (Ferrari 512)
01:49:22 Expert Arcade Basic ( McLaren F1)
02:00:35 Expert Arcade Pro (Ferrari F50)
02:17:10 Single Race With Porsche 959
02:19:45 Single Race with Dodge Viper
02:24:00 Records