Fatal Racing

Racing 1995 Dos Dosbox Gremlin Interactive Car and action City race

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Winning is surviving!

Gremlin Interactive is perhaps best known for its 8-bit games like Thing on a Spring and Monty Mole, or its later 16-bit hits like Zool, Premier Manager and Actua Soccer. Fatal Racing is one of their lesser known efforts but is well worth re-visiting, as its blend of high-speed driving and stunts stands up well even today. As is usual for the driving genre, the player chooses from a number of cars and then takes to a series of increasingly challenging courses littered with corkscrews, loops and jumps. There are several cups to compete in, each with some unusual features like corkscrews, twister jumps and even moving speedbumps. Also out on the track are a number of surprisingly smart AI-controlled drivers who will do their best to sabotage your efforts to cross the line first by driving the wrong way around the course or even smashing directly into you. Graphics and sound are understandably limited compared to today's racers but serve their purpose well enough. The advanced AI competitors require some strong tactical driving in order to beat, which adds depth, but it is the mixture of destruction and insane courses that really makes the game as addictive as it is and there is much fun to be had from causing as much devastation as possible.

A solid racing game

Fatal Racing is a pretty solid racing game made in the mid-nineties and I wouldn't say that it is better or worse from most games from that time. There is not much to say - you race with other competitors through city streets, and try to be the first one to the finish line. There are a few surprises included, like jumping from one part of the track to the other and other cool stunt moves that remind me of the game Trackmania (only you're not playing on with a formula car and are in a city). There are three cups you can participate in, with a wide variety of tracks of increasing difficulty. The graphics are pretty good, and a good feature is that you see the tracks from inside the car or from a third person perspecitve. The animation is pretty solid, but since the game is from 1995, so the images are a bit blocky and the surfaces are not as smooth as today's racing games, like Need For Speed Underground. Not much, but pretty okay and fun.

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