OutRun

The Good
Colourful loading screen, good in game graphics(in places).

The Bad
Hardly any sound to speak off. No real sense of speed - you actually think your driving backwards when accelerating. Everything seems to jump in steps towards you as you struggle to keep on the road. After all the hype and excitement this christmas gift was a total disappointment. I recall the odd screenshot in amstrad mags in the build up the christmas showing a pretty attractive looking game. The actual game itself looked very different and left me returning to a grand prix budget game that actually did the job unlike outrun..

The Bottom Line
A rushed port seemingly based upon the spectrum version but this is no excuse for the poor programming employed. Why release a racer that has no sense of speed? Perhaps the software house involved just rushed out what they could with a smile knowing it would sell out quickly.

The Good
What can I say? Certainly not much. The loading screen and the main menu tune are close enough to the original. The graphics, slow-ish scroll notwithstanding, have their appeal too.

The Bad
Almost everything. I will admit beforehand that being such a legendary arcade game the conversion would have been nothing short of excellent not to disappoint anyone.

What we are left with is a subpar racing game with one of the worst scrolls I've ever seen. Between that, the lack of speed sensation and the mediocre sounds (except screeching tires and crashes, you won't hear anything unless you got the edition with the infamous arcade music tape) it feels like you are playing the original underwater.

The Bottom Line
A truly horrid rendition of one of the best arcade games ever produced. The rest of the home computer versions got mixed reviews, but, personally, I have little doubt that the Amstrad CPC version is the worst of them all.