Lamborghini: American Challenge

aka: Crazy Cars 3, Crazy Cars III
Moby ID: 783
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Starting out with just a basic Lamborghini and $6000, your aim is to rise to the top of the 4 divisions of racing through success on 60 race tracks across The United States. In each division there are 20 rival racers, up to 3 of which compete in each race at a time.

The races also feature lots of local drivers (who can take crucial positions away from you and the other championship drivers), Sunday drivers going at normal speed, and police. Before each race you will be told of the quality of the locals and the likelihood of police presence.

When police are in the area, speeding beyond 110 km/h could see you branded as an offender, at which point the police will try to ram you off the road, Chase H.Q.-style. You can attempt to reach the end of the race despite this damage (which eventually hampers your speed) or simply pull over and accept a fine and the loss of race points. If the police subsequently stop you, the fine is heavier.

Each race costs money to enter and your earnings can be boosted by betting on the results with the other championship drivers. If one of you wins, each driver gives you either the amount they bet or the amount you bet, whichever is lower. If a local wins you get your stake back.

Lots of power-ups can be bought along the way, including tires, radar jammers, engine improvements and nitro boosts. To move up a division you must take the Divisional Challenge, a one-off trek through a tough section within the time limit. You buy a set of 3 passes for this, each allowing one attempt.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

12 People (10 developers, 2 thanks)

Undetermined
Game Design
Coding
Graphics
Musics
Special Thanks to

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 51 ratings with 2 reviews)

Storming down a highway in a Lamborghini. What more could you ask for?

The Good
"Live life in the fast lane", that was the games slogan and that is exactly what it delivered. I loved racing down those windy roads, slipping between slow moving traffic. The damage system was great, i simply loved smashing into other cars and watching them suffer as I sailed past. Sandwiching cars was extremely cool. The smashing is one feature most modern racing games miss out on. The police were great fun to bash around.
The betting, whilst being a minor feature, was cool and added to the game. The various rivals were full of character and sometimes genuinely hard to beat. Because it is packed full of tracks, doesn't mean that the tracks are poor, some of them were nice and easy and made for an enjoyable drive whilst others you struggled on, just making it round the corners on the thin path in the dark.
There was a superb mix of tracks. It helped of course that the game featured my favourite car, the Lamborghini, so was a pleasure to play.

The Bad
The only thing i didn't really like was the end-of-division race. You were set on a road against millions of lorries which got in your way and you used none of the racing skill you possesed to complete the boss race. It was like a whole new set of skills had to be learnt

The Bottom Line
An excellent racing game set among traffic. Smash your way through opponents and police to earn money you won betting to upgrade your car to face increasingly tougher opponents and tracks

DOS · by Julian McKenzie (160) · 2000

Another opinion and this one is a lot less positive.

The Good
Please note: This is a review for the 1994 Lamborghini American Challenge version

Lamborghini American Challenge is an arcade racer somewhat similair in style to Sega's Classic Outrun. Races take place on interstates scattered all across the U.S. instead of on circuit tracks. While trying to get from point A to B faster than the competition you'll have to watch out for the cops who patrol the highways and avoid slamming into the regular traffic. By winning races you earn the cash you need to: 1) Pay the entrance fee for your next race 2) repair the damage to your car 3) buy upgrades to improve your car. Of course the pattern of winning -> upgrading -> racing against better opponents has been done many times before but the formula has proven itself over time. Unless of course if the player's budget is as tight as it is in this game (for more about this; see the bad section).

  • Lamborghini American Challenge (released in 1994) is probably one of the last sprite-based racing games. It's also one of the best looking ones. All the different venues (I think there are about 60 tracks divided over 4 divisions plus 4 division challenges; I'm not sure about this, since I never managed to complete the game) have different sceneries and the backgrounds look especially nice using many, often bright, colors. Weather conditions and the time of the day vary. The map and the portraits of your rivals look cartoon-like. Among your rivals are several spoofs of celebrities like: Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper, Chuck Norris and Fester from the Adams Family.
  • Two players can play in the same tournament and race against each other when they choose to participate in the same race. But you don't have to, you can choose to avoid each other.
  • Before the race you can bet against your rivals. If you finish in front of them, they owe you an amount of cash equal to your own wager (or less if their wager was lower then yours). It's a somewhat fun way to make some extra cash and increases the stakes. Unfortunately... since you have to win every race (see bad section), raising your wager becomes a no-brainer. If you have to win anyway, why no bet as much as you can?


**The Bad**
  • The driving part of the game, which is of course the most important part of the game, is downright awful. The handling of the cars is lousy, the controls are not responsive, the action is jerky and even with the best tires & brakes it's often very hard to keep your car on the road. You have very little grip and keep skidding in every corner. Once you're pushed to the outside of a corner, you'll likely crash into some car you can't avoid or hit something on the side of the road. To make matters worse; the computer cars are uneffected by this problem. They're glued to the track and breeze through abrupt turns while you lose speed.
  • Another fault of the game is that you drive at full speed all the time. A good (or let's say normal) racing game requires the player to approach corners with some thought, to push the brakes every now & then and to accelerate again when you come out of a corner. Well, Lamborghini American Challenge is different and ignores the basic principles of driving a car. The moment you hit the brakes two or three opponents will overtake you immediately (I thought that entering a corner with a somewhat lower speed would improve my grip... I was wrong). And since you always have to start at position 10 (which quickly becomes position 11 as a computer car always blazes past you at full speed 2 seconds after the start) you're constantly playing catch-up. It's pedal to the metal all the time until you happen to hit a civilian car. Afterwards it's a matter of regaining top-speed as fast as possible. Overall, car-handling is really disappointing. This has nothing to do with driving.
  • 60 tracks sounds like a lot, but after a while you do get the feeling that all the tracks are more or less the same despite the different backgrounds.
  • Annoying save structure. You can only save after 4 races or after you've qualified for the next division. There's only one save-slot available and the game automatically overwrites the last saved game after race 4. Guess what happens when two members of a family share one computer.
  • The game's main tune gets on my nerves after a few seconds and the engine sounds like the developers put a mosquito in a jar and held a microphone to it. Not impressive at all.
  • The limited size of your starting budget coupled with the fact that you need to pay an entrance fee for every race, have to keep upgrading your car to stay competitive and have to buy (expensive) tickets for the division challenge means your margin of error is very small. As a rule of thumb: if you finish in second place you'll manage to break-even and you need to win a race to earn some cash. If you decided to invest a large sum of money in for example a better gearbox and then perform poorly on the next race you probably don't have enough money to pay the starting fee for another race. This results in a lot of tedious reloading. Great if you can only save your game after 4 races....


**The Bottom Line**
Can't believe I once enjoyed this. If you want to play an interesting sprite-based racer, check out Road Rash. Lamborghini American Challenge is repetitive, unforgiving and uncontrollable. In onther words: it's not much fun!

DOS · by Roedie (5238) · 2003

Discussion

Subject By Date
Is a split out of the question? Neville (3559) Jun 2, 2016

Trivia

Cameo

On the player selection screen, there is a character's portrait that looks an awful lot like Mister T from The A-Team TV series. On some versions of the game, his name is given as Joe.

Differences from Crazy Cars III

  • Two player mode in substitution of the training mode.
  • Reworked title screen.
  • The brands Lamborghini and Diablo are now used under license from Automobili Lamborghini S.P.A, Italy.
  • Mouse support (DOS version)
  • Music has been retouched to better fit the Sound Blaster capabilities (DOS version).
  • EGA is no longer supported, only VGA/MCGA and superiors. The setup options at startup are also gone (DOS version).
  • CC3 only allows the user to save a game after a Division Challenge is won. "Lamborghini American Challenge" prompts the user to save progress every 5 races, whatever the result.
  • The night goggles item is no longer available for purchase, except in the SNES version. However, the slot in the score board where it should appear still exists.
  • The car no longer bounces to the top of the screen after driving through slopes at high speeds. Also, sharp turns are no longer signaled.
  • Car colors are different. In CC3 Sly gets the red Lamborghini, whereas in "Lamborghini American Challenge" he drives the yellow one.
  • Different title tune (Amiga version)
  • No introduction (Amiga version)
  • Different scoring system. In CC3 the player is rewarded with the score adequate to his/her position during the race. The 1st place is worth 3 points per second, the 2nd place is worth 2 points per second and any other place is worth 1 point per second. In "Lamborghini American Challenge" during the whole race you get 1 point no matter on what place you are driving.

Game Boy version

The Game Boy version seems to have been reworked and later released as Roadsters for the Game Boy Color. While not exactly the same game, the design is very similar.

SNES version

The SNES version of the game is unique in that it supports the Super Scope Light Gun. Having it plugged in activates a unique racing mode and changes the game considerably, as the player can shoot his way through traffic rather than avoiding it.

Awards

  • ST Format
    • January 1993 (issue #42) - #18 in '50 finest Atari ST games of all time' list

Information also contributed by Roedie and WildKard

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  • MobyGames ID: 783
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

Game Boy, SNES, Amiga added by POMAH. Commodore 64 added by Kabushi. Amiga CD32, Atari ST added by Martin Smith. Amstrad CPC added by Skitchy.

Additional contributors: tarmo888, Alaka, Martin Smith, Neville, CalaisianMindthief, mailmanppa, Jo ST.

Game added January 23, 2000. Last modified August 15, 2024.