This first release from French software house Titus is set in the far flung future. A conference of all world leaders is being held in the city of Megapolis, and the outcome of this historic event could be world peace. Hurrah! However, a ruthless gang of terrorists is driving towards the city with a large nuclear bomb and they intend to blow up the whole place - leaders and all - and then take over the world during the following confusion.

There's only one person who can save the day - and that's you! So grab the keys to your 850 horse power deathmobile, the Thundermaster II, arm its guns and missiles and take to the highway and destroy the villains before they complete their foul mission!

The 3D action is viewed from behind your car, and the object is to race down the road (or fly for a limited period of time if you manage to run over the special fuel cannisters), catch up with the convoy leader and destroy it. The ultimate aim is to destroy the bomb-carrying convoy leader on the fifth level.

Between you and the convoy leader is a load of other baddies, all of who want to trash your lovely vehicle - so avoid their shots and blast them before they crash into you!

A distance meter ticks down as you zoom along, so you know how far ahead the leader is, and once he's in your sights you can let rip with your missiles. When he's destroyed you move onto the next, more difficult level - can you make it to level five and save the world?

COMMENT

MATT

Vrooom! Dashing along the road blowing everything up is my idea of fun (I've got an Uzi attached to my Escort). This game gives a real feeling of speed, and the excellent scrolling helps to add atmosphere to the challenge. With so many factors to consider - collecting fuel pods, steering around the corners, and destroying anything silly enough to get in your way - the action remains fast and furious throughout. The end-of-level baddies present a tough fight, and not an insurmountable one; and I find myself constantly distracted by the rather pretty parallax-scrolling clouds! This game isn't the greatest ever, but it's lots of fun and one of the best driving shoot em ups on the Sega.

JULIAN

I prefer this to Battle Outrun and Chase HQ! In those games you just had to bump the enemies off the road - here you can let rip with your machine guns and missiles and blow up everything that gets in your way! The action is very fast and pretty tough, almost to the point of being off-putting at first. However, once you get used to the speed of things, you start getting into the action and rise to the considerable challenge. The graphics and sound are both brilliant - the road is particularly smooth and convincing - and the update on the sprites is excellent. A must for addicts of highway violence!

Rating

By

TITUS

Price

£29.99

Release Date

Nov

Game difficulty

Med/Hard

Lives

6

Continues

2

Skill levels

1

Responsiveness

Very fast

Presentation

81%
A few in-game presentation screens, but no options.

Graphics

90%
Very colourful, with excellent parallax scrolling and fast, smooth and convincing

Sound

83%
Solid blasting effects and some racy tunes suit the action very well.

Playability

87%
The fast speed of the action is almost off-putting at first - but perseverance reaps rewards.

Lastability

79%
Five levels doesn 't sound like much, but they're long and completing them requires much practice.

Overall

82%
A graphically superb road racing shoot 'em up which offers plenty of speedy thrills and spills.

Rating

82

Reviewer

Mean Machines magazine

Region

UK

Scans

MeanMachines-Magazine-Issue02?gallerypage=86

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