US Racer

Davilex: your guarantee of mediocrity. The very name reeks of substandard games, sounding more like a cleaning product than an entertainment developer. They knock them out at a pace though, furnishing us with such dubious delights as M25 Racer, the water-based Thames London Racer, and continuing the er... theme, wasn’t there even a Europe Racer? We can’t remember. Either way, the US of A is the next logical step, and here it is, with 11 tracks, six zany characters, and no new ideas whatsoever. Creative thievery is the order of the day, with a sizeable lift from Midtown Madness, in that races take place in busy cities with ambient traffic and over-aggressive police (no change there then).

The city-specific radio stations are straight out of Grand Theft Auto, although here they begin to repeat over the course of a two-lap race. And if you want to look closer (and have played a lot of driving games), the scripted disaster sequences are similar to those of Speed Busters, and there’s even a section of the Los Angeles track that’s identical to that of Supercar Street Challenge, although that can be dismissed as coincidence.

The driving model is all their own though, and is largely unsatisfying. Opponents veer into each other, reducing races to a mess of automotive carnage, with very little actual racing to be had. It’s vaguely playable for half an hour, but the uninstall option rapidly beckons.