Lotus Turbo Challenge Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [60 FPS]

Developed by Gremlin Graphics and published by Electronic Arts in 1992. Follow me on Twitter: Add me on Google : I suspect that many Amiga devotees are choking at the thought that one of the system’s best racers, as well as one of the most iconic games on the system, was ported to the Sega Mega Drive. As an Amiga fan, I myself was already heavily prejudiced against this game before I even started; in fact, my principle reason for recording this video was so I could write a review about just how awful it is and take a few cheap shots at it. Having fired up the game, the terrible Mega Drive rendition of Barry Leitch’s amazing intro tune warbles through the speakers and I’m already thinking of just how badly I’m going to verbally beat the game to death once I get into the game proper. Things don’t improve when I’m greeted by the horribly noddy level load screens that are daubed in garish colours and some bizarrely elaborate font that spells out the name of each track. This isn’t boding well. Things start to look up once the game actually starts and the racing begins. The game moves along at a quick pace and the car handling feels very responsive. Unfortunately, the ridiculously punishing time limits from the Amiga version are back with a vengeance and seem even tighter this time around, if that were possible. I found myself reliving the nightmare of trying to grab ’Extra Time’ capsules on the damnable Marsh level for a second time. Perhaps the worst level of all here is the storm level where you must drive the first leg of the race flawlessly at maximum speed; even if you manage this, you’ll find yourself drifting past the checkpoint with the timer on 0 and just praying that you’ve enough momentum to carry you over the line. In terms of graphics, the Amiga version runs at a higher resolution and looks much sharper than the MD version. However, the console version runs more smoothly and the car handling is noticeably more responsive as a result. I also noticed that the Elan has a transparent windscreen on the MD version and you can see the road and oncoming obstacles. A lot of the artwork for the MD version seems to have been resized and retouched for the console version and whilst it doesn’t look as good, it’s perfectly adequate. Unfortunately, the one area where the MD does get a total thrashing is the audio department. The music is OK I suppose, but it was never going to great. The car engine effects are awful and sound more like a cross between a wailing banshee crossed with a UFO. The tyre-squealing as you go around corners gets on your nerves and sounds like a yapping dog that’s had it’s testicles crushed in a vice. Of course, Lotus was really the Amiga’s answer to Sega’s seminal OutRun. Considering just how bad the Amiga version of OutRun is, the Lotus games offered some of the best racing on that particular platform and were a lot more relevant on that platform. However, the Mega Drive already has an official Sega conversion of OutRun for the console that is extremely good and both looks AND sounds better than Lotus. There’s really no reason why you would buy the latter over the former. To give the MD version of Lotus it’s due, it’s actually quite playable (time issues aside) and I’m sure fans of the racing genre will get some fun from this. This just assumes that you already own and have exhausted all the fun that OutRun has to offer. #retrogaming