ZX Spectrum

Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart's Super Off Road

Loads of colour on all the tracks with the minimum of attribute clash makes Spectrum Off Road Racer a bit of a looker. Like all the 8 bit versions, everything has been crammed into a single load, and even though only two players can participate, this still ranks as a great Speccy release.

Overall Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road is brilliant. It's highly playable, addictive and has superb gameplay. The game shows what can be packed into a Spectrum and is a must for all Spectrum owners as an example of Z80 programming at its very best.

Of course, it's not just the simple, accessible game design that makes Ironman so good - the Codies, for instance, have done hundreds of similar things, albeit with a simpler perspective and none of the interesting bouncy up-and-down bits. It's the skill with which it's been programmed. Graftgold (last responsible for the Speccy Rainbow Islands) are the blokes behind it, and they've managed to incorporate lots of colour, very little clash, and get everything jumping around incredibly quickly. And it all loads in one go as well. It achieves what it sets out to do more or less perfectly. In case you hadn't guessed already, I love Ironman. For my money this is one of the most fun games of the year, and the best Supersprint-type game I've ever played (much better than the original was on our rubber.keyed chum, that's for sure). The business, and no mistake.

All the coin-op’s addictive gameplay has certainly been transferred to the Speccy conversion, and as always the best way to play is against a friend. Graphically the game is great with small but nicely detailed and fast moving car sprites. The backgrounds are also detailed and certainly cause headaches, especially when an opponent is on your tail and you end up at the bottom of a water filled hole! Full marks to programming team Graftgold for producing such a frustratingly playable game.

Super Off Road is the best Super Sprint type game ever seen on the Speccy - rush out and buy it at once. What are you waiting for?

Track graphics are colourful, but the cars are monochrome. Like the CPC, only two humans can play simultaneously. The player cars are distinguished by black and white flags waving from their aerials, which can lead to slight confusion when in a road ruck.