Summary
Brilliant technical presentation on modest hardware.
The Good
Stunt Track Racer has such a simple premise and gameplay concept that I'm not quite sure how to review it. For those not familiar with the game, you essentially race around on a race track 100 feet off the ground in a car that can turbo-boost it's way off jumps and around turns. It doesn't sound that interesting written down, but playing the game immediately changes your mind: Your car bounces around the track at high speed. There are jumps, drawbridges, and devilishly-constructed jumps before turns. The physics model can make or break a game like this, and in retrospect it probably shouldn't have been attempted on such a slow machine. But it comes through with flying colors! You really get the feeling that you're up
that high, that you're landing
that hard, and that you're being thrown into that turn
that roughly.
And the graphics are 3D! Simple hidden-wireframe with a filler that cuts corners, yes, but 3D all the same. And with pretty impressive framerates on early slow hardware to boot.
The Bad
Being able to save your game only during the end of a division heat is inconvenient. Also, the car AI seems to always know something you don't--I've seen them do some nearly-impossible things, which leads me to believe that, possibly, computer-controlled cars don't suffer from damage like the player does.
The Bottom Line
An early, wonderfully surprising,
fun stunt racing game that everyone should play.
