by Barry Cantin 9/27/97
BCantin@aol.com

Indy 500 - $19.99, released September 1997.

One of the first three titles for the Game.com (including the pack-in, "Lights Out") is a cart-version of the Tiger handheld game "Indy 500". This racing title is more of a test of *endurance* than driving skills, and I'll have to say up front - I don't like it.

The game starts with a decent, short animated opening sequence which leads to the options menu. The options themselves include level of difficulty (easy, medium, hard), a few sound effects you can listen to, and a choice of weather conditions (sunny, rain). After that, start the game to select your automobile. There are three different types of cars you can choose - with varying levels of tire grip, acceleration, and top vehicle speed. I've tried all three, and haven't noticed a significant difference - although I do prefer the one with the best grip, you will NEED EVERY BIT OF THAT YOU CAN GET. The next option to choose is the type of transmission - manual or automatic. Naturally, choosing a manual transmission gives you greater control over the vehicle (and perhaps a bit more speed), but adds to the complexity of controlling your car.

Before you can race, you have to complete a qualifying lap. One thing that I found annoying is that the race (incl. the qualifying lap) always begins from a rolling start. I personally prefer to start with tires squealing as I get my vehicle going from a stop condition. Oh well.

Now the problems begin. First, the race track is an OVAL. Sure, it's the Indy 500 - but there's not a heck of a lot of scenery to be had here. During the qualifying lap, you'll follow a lap car which you cannot pass. Learning to negotiate and anticipate these turns is *crucial*. In fact, it's almost the entire game. Avoiding other cars is sometimes completely impossible, for no apparent reason. I have seemingly provided myself with very sufficient room between myself and other vehicles, only to crash and wipe out... trying to figure out why. It is very difficult to determine when you are too close to another car, or *especially* when you are too close to the edge of the track. You have to race very conservatively until you get a good feel for where the edge of the track and other cars actually are.

Driving is a jumpy, low frame-rate experience. It is almost as if it is one of Tiger's handhelds, which have discrete locations for the automobiles placed permanently on the screen. No smooth graphics here. This jumpiness also adds to the difficulty of just playing the game itself.

The crash/wipe out sequence is annoying, too. The car will spin out, and play the crash noise - completely cutting off all other ambient sounds to do so.

If/when you crash enough during the race, you'll have to go into the pit. If you don't, your car will creep around the track at a snail's pace and you'll lose valuable time you may have made against your opponents. Now, getting into the PIT is another problem in itself. You'll see a flashing "PIT" at the right of the screen; the instructions tell you to make a hard right when you see this, in order to enter the pit. Well, this works only about half the time - the other half, you wind up making another SLOW trip around the

track, being passed up by all the cars you've worked ever so hard to pass before.

Passing cars takes a LOT of practice to figure out. I have whizzed by some of my opponents miraculously without a scratch, and other times given myself plenty of room and still crashed. There are oil slicks on the track, too - when you hit one of these, your car comes to a halt temporarily while a special sound effect is played. Ummm, I don't think that's the way it REALLY works. I would have hoped my car would skid or I'd lose some of that traction I got with my car initially, but not the case.

The sound effects are actually really good - a VERY clear digitized voice announces the start of the race and your options, some of the race sounds are very realistic too. I also like the extraneous sounds the game employs, such as the "ding" you hear when you select an option.

Here's the bottom line. Indy 500 is generally not a fun racing game. It is hard to play, and requires a LOT of patience just to complete a single race. Control of your car is difficult, and there's not a heck of a lot to do except drive around

Rating:

Scale:
1: POOR
5: GREAT!!!

Graphics: 1.5
Sound: 3.0
Gameplay: 1.0
Repeatability: 1.5
Value ($19.99) 1.5
Overall: 1.7

This cartridge looks like it was rushed out the door before it was finished, so that Tiger could have another game available at the time of its system launch. Let's hope this isn't indicative of future game.com releases.