Supercars International
Description official description
This is the third game in the Super Cars series of top-down view, arcade racing games from Magnetic Fields. As always, there is also a management portion available in the game (which is optional).
The game is basically a re-make of Super Cars II, with added elements, tweaked gameplay, updated 256-color VGA graphics and a new soundtrack.
The game lets you compete in three built-in seasons (easy, medium, hard) but also lets you customize your own seasons. All the 21 tracks seems to have been lifted from the previous title, but here you can choose the amount of laps and also race them in reverse.
If you are running a season using the "full" option, which means including the management portion, you have to buy your own cars to race with. This is done at a car dealer between each race, using a mini-game with different chat options to try to bring down the price. Each new car can carry more weapons and armor, and is also faster.
Weapons and armor can also be purchased between each race, as well as repairing any damage you have sustained. Prices vary between races, so there is a chance to gain money by using the weapons as commodities and trading with them. Some weapons have changed from the last game, and you now also have a button to select which weapon to fire while racing.
In addition several special events with similar mini-games as with the car dealer will appear between each race in the management mode (and there are several new events compared to the last game).
The core of the game, the race itself, takes place on various road courses with tunnels, jumps, railway crossings and gates that open and close. Though the game is an arcade racer, the cars behave somewhat realistically, with power-slides in corners and spin-outs when crashing (which is new to this game). All cars also leave skid marks and craters when they explode, which means that the track looks quite battle worn at the end of a race.
In addition to racing against the computer players, you can also race against a friend using a split screen mode.
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Screenshots
Credits (DOS version)
8 People (4 developers, 4 thanks)
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Reviews
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings with 1 reviews)
A remake which creates 16-bit perfection.
The Good
This game is absolute top quality from the first second to the last.
The management portion works, and is simple enough to fit in an arcade game and even, I think, fun. Especially the humorous, random in between races events where you can either win or loose money or points.
The racing itself is much improved over Super Cars II. The gameplay just feels tighter. The car is much more responsive and overall feels absolutely great. You also can no longer blow up by crashing into the barriers, but rather you spin out and loose time instead, which helps with the flow of the game.
The tracks are the same as in Super Cars II, but that doesn't really matter much, because they are all very different and present unique challenges and I'd dare to say unique gameplay per track as well.
The graphics have also been updated to 256-color VGA, but the updates are not significant, which is a good thing. They only seemed to have wanted to polish and perfect the graphics, rather than create something new, which means that everything is basically... well, I might wear this word out, but is bloody is perfect.
The Bad
There is not much not to like about the game, so I'm really forced to nitpick here:
The music, unfortunately haven't been carried over from Super Cars II, and the soundtrack here is not as good, but then again, it's only played in the menus.
The AI is serviceable, but not really varied in any way, and on tracks with gates, you absolutely murder them since they never seem to use them.
Also, on tracks with tunnels, you can sometimes get into trouble because you can't see any cars, including yours. The only hint as to what you are doing is the sound and the scrolling of the screen.
Finally, the mini map gets in the way occasionally, but that's really nitpicking now!
The Bottom Line
This represents the pinnacle of 16-bit gaming, although granted, it is here converted to a 32-bit platform but I think that only enabled them to gain better perspective and more room to improve the game. It is the perfect 16-bit gaming experience.
DOS · by eobet (55) · 2006
Trivia
Bugs
There are a number of bugs in the game. The armor value of a car seems to be off by a factor of ten. The computer players never seem to drive through gates. Randomizing the track order doesn't seem to work and neither do the driver stats.
Release History
The Hit Squad budget label release might be the only release of this game. People claiming to be the original developers on internet forums have said that the game was never released (or finished) to their knowledge.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by eobet.
Additional contributors: Alaka.
Game added April 28, 2006. Last modified June 25, 2023.