Jaguar XJ220

"Race your Jaguar XJ220 against other super cars including Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis over thirty six circuits through twelve different countries. Speed through variable weather conditions whilst tackling waterfalls, tunnels, cliffs, bridges and mountain passes. Fog, snow, wind, rain and sandstorms. One or two-player split-screen option. Joystick or mouse control. Map editor - Create your own circuits. Financial Management strategy."

Hot on the heels of the successful Lotus series of racing game comes core designs take on the Amiga chase view racing game. Presentation is top notch as well as the overall graphic and sound quality but its going to be a wild ride through 36 loooong races spread over 12 countries. This is far more than the arcade style racing games with some strategy required with car repairs and financing flights to other countries. So much can go wrong very quickly so thankfully you get to save between each race.

before each race you chose between sound effects or from a selection of music to accompany the race. You cant have both which is a huge disappointment after playing the demo. The early races are quite short so no need to worry about fuel. This will change mid game as the number of laps required nearly doubles. You need to race to win in order to get the big money and ideally you avoid bashing the other cars else you will receive a major repair bill after the race, you really don't want to damage the engine as repairing can nearly bankrupt you. Ideally you full repair before each race as any orange parts will work against you. Complete all the races with the top scores to get the end screen. That's a lot of work for just a screen .. The game is long and can really feel like its being dragged out with all the many lap races over very similar tracks. The save function is very welcome to break up play sessions.

Part of what makes a racing game fun to play is the car handling and I think Core really missed the mark on this one. There are many tracks where the car just wants to go out wide and come to a stop as you hit the grass. Slow down you say which is great and does work except the opponent cars have no such need to slow down and just boost off into the distance. The problem is further escalated if you don't have green tires before starting the race and you will get nowhere. Manual gears will probably help no doubt but the car still should not handle this way. Also, the opposing cars will only stop for fuel if they happen to be on screen when you are and even then even more will fly right past seemingly with no need to refuel at all. More play testing should have been done to make sure the tracks don't unfairly throw out the players car. Greece and Australia went quite bad for me and closes out the longplay with a wimper.

Overall, its a well presented racing game on Amiga but falls short of being fun to play and doesnt take long to feel like an uphill grind. Once you have taken a few knocks from scenery or other cars, the car damage will start working against you and you have to hope you don't fall to far back. There was a slight bug with the second piece of music where it cuts out when it supposed to loop. There is a lot of very slow disk loading and I have tried to trim a good chunk of it out so that its not on one screen for too long.

The game was played on the equivalent of a standard A500 the game is aimed for but it can take advantage of faster cpu making the game a bit smoother but also unwieldly in fast sections of the track. Maybe the Cd32 version will be recorded later showing speed difference although the game is exactly the same with no AGA enhancements or additional audio tracks

As a bonus, I have attached a recording of the Magazine Demo to compare with the final released game.

00:00:00 Intro / Title
00:04:00 England
00:30:45 France
00:56:30 Germany
01:25:45 Switzerland
01:56:22 Italy
02:30:45 Greece
03:01:50 Egypt
03:36:20 Brazil
04:12:50 USA
04:49:50 Canada
05:29:10 Japan
06:09:00 Australia
06:52:15 Ending
06:56:00 Amiga Format Magazine Demo