Gremlin
£10.99/£14.99

No sooner were we zipping around in Gremlin's Lotus than they give us a new motor to wreck: Toyota Celia GT Rally sets you at the steering wheel of a brand new Toyota Celica (makes sense), with the course of the Toyota World Rally season to negotiate.

The first job is to set the playing options. These include a choice of control options, manual or automatic gears and manual or automatic steering return (ie, whether or not the steering wheel centres itself alter a bend). You can then practice in one of three countries (England, Mexico or Finland), or head straight into the racing season.

Here, you can change the number of players and the names of the drivers, and create your own navigator. There's an in-built one (arrows pop-up as you approach a bend) but he isn't perfect. Should you choose this last option, you can go round the course and input your own direction arrows.

So here we are on the starting line. The view is from the driver's seat and stretching out ahead is the tortuous course. Every second counts (as a certain balding magician is fond of saying) so a timer on the dashboard ticks away. A 20 second penalty is incurred when you spin off the track, while a hefty two minute penalty is 'earned' for a false start.

So it's crash hats on, a final word with the co-driver and off along a rutted track at suicidal speeds. That's the life for me!

Although this is a good game I still prefer Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, mainly because of the simultaneous two-player race. Here there's a fair amount of angst while battling against the clock, but it doesn't quite beat the feeling you get when you see a mate zooming past.

Graphically, Toyota Celia GT Rally is very good and the through-the-windscreen viewpoint is something not often seen in Speccy racing games. There are some neat graphical touches inside the car, the driver's hands on the steering wheel being the most notable, but the backgrounds are a little on the sparse side.

If rallying is your cup of Castrol GTX, then Toyota Celica GT Rally is a good one. Personally, I still prefer Lotus.

MARK [84%]

Racing games on the Speccy always leave the landscapes and roads looking like large blocks of crude shading. However, Toyota Celica GT Rally is a good attempt, the large shaded areas broken up with roadside objects and simulated hills. Controlling the car was difficult at first. I'm so used to going at top speed on any car racing game but doing this in Toyota results in a smashed windscreen! You have to treat the game as if you were driving a real car, slowing right down on corners and steering with care. Presentation is excellent, with digitised pictures of the car and Toyota logos used in the title sequence. Toyota Cello GT Rally provides a believable spin around some nasty stretches of road. A must for all rally followers!
NICK [84%]

Gremlin
£10.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: James Leach

They're blimmin' well car mad, those Gremlin blokes. As if Supercars and Lotus weren't enough, they've just come up with a third vroom-vroom game called Toyota Celica GT Rally! What a bunch of complete boy racers, eh? (And yes, I know Switchblade didn't even have the slightest whiff of an exhaust fume in it, so just shut up, will you?)

The Toyota Celica GT4, for those who don't know, is a four-wheel drive rally car, capable of doing about 150mph round somebody's lawn. It even won the Lombard RAC Rally and the British Open Rally recently (for the second year running, no less). So we can safely assume that it's the bee's knees. How else could Gremlin resist the idea of standing by a freezing car track in Wales at 3.30am, getting all muddy and wet, just to see one of these cars zip past in .25 of a second. They couldn't, is the answer. So off they trotted, with their wellies on, to do just that. Then they came back, turned the heating up full and wrote the game. And I don't mind telling you that the result is very impressive.

Rally is in the Lotus Esprit Turbo mould. That, as you very probably know, was a Megagame (but only just). Spookily, however, Celica GT Rally was actually written before Lotus. About two-and-a-half years before. Yep, amazing as it sounds, Rally was knocking around for 3 years being speeded up and refined before Gremlin decided it was good enough to release. They also waited to find a rally car good enough to use as a tie-in.

The game system is actually fairly similar for both, except that the Lotus remains all nice and shiny, whilst the Celica gets well and truly filthy (because it spends most of its time sliding into puddles). The road looks the same for both games, but there are big rocks and trees along the side for the Celica to crash into. (It's certainly a nice change for a game to feature a macho, dirty, smashed-up Japanese vehicle for once rather than a girly Italian racer!)

OKAY THEN, WHAT HAVE WE GOT?

Well, a big, powerful car and 30 bouncy roads to drive it on basically. Everything is seen from the driving seat, so you can watch your own hands spookily turning the wheel as you move the joystick. You have 3 countries to race in (England, Mexico and Finland), with 10 stages per country. You can practice in any of the countries, or can go straight into the stressful and exciting World Championship. Whey-hey! Let's do that then!

At first you'll probably choose the automatic car so you don't need to faff around with stupid gears and stuff. Then wait at the start line until the 'Go'signal flashes up. Put your clog to the floor and all 4 wheels'll spin as you belt towards the first corner. Becasue you're now a cool rally driver you shouldn't bother slowing down too much - just turn the car sideways and go round like that. Yahoo! Then straighten up (if you can) and head for the next corner. Easy-peasy (I don't think). Trying to keep your car heading (if not pointing) in the right direction is a mammoth task, actually, as well as a great deal of fun.

If you do come off the road it isn't necessarily a mega-disaster. Depending on how skilful (and, er, lucky) you are, you may still be able to slide the car back on course without losing too much speed (or your life). You have very little grip on the muddy (or sandy or whatever) verges, and if you happen to hit a (nicely drawn) tree, cactus or rock your windscreen will break and then you'll have to wait for ages for it to be fixed before you can drive off. Oh, and you also get a 20 second penalty. Boo hoo!

Each stage is timed, so you don't see any other cars when you're racing. You're really up against the clock, so you'll be stuffed if you crash more than twice (ie get 40 seconds of penalty time). Rather cleverly (at least I think it's clever), Gremlin have set up your Japanese jalopy so that the ideal speed for the course is quite a bit less than full throttle. This means that you should be oh-so-careful going round the corners because you're almost always zipping along far too quickly when you reach them.

But you're not alone in all this! Ho no, missus. To help you blast your way to a record time, you've got a sort of spooky invisible co-driver who indicates when corners are corning up with arrow signs by the side of the road. What you're able to do before every stage is scroll through a top view of the circuit putting the arrows wherever you want. Then, when you're chugging along, they'll turn up at the points you put them at. Doing this also helps you learn the course so you get an idea of what to expect. It's a nice touch in the game.

Your race times for each stage are added up, and you must beat a certain number of the computer bods in order to qualify for the race in the next country. Up to 4 humans can play, so if you're alone (and desperate, like me) you can have 4 exciting attempts to qualify. Hurrah!

EXCITING, YOU SAY?

Yes, very exciting actually! Rally is incredibly fast and smooth. The car handles realistically and as I've put several real cars into ditches I should know! Pretty stonking graphics and good sound (although the engine noise sometimes cut out on ours, but that might just have been my slightly unorthodox driving techniques) certainly complete my happiness.

Yep, it seems like the Grems have got the secret of fast and spanky road graphics well and truly sussed. The road view is the only thing which'll really remind you of Lotus when you're playing the game. That and all the menus, which are very similar as well (why change a winning formula?). Oh, and the undulating road which means you can bounce over hillocks and can't see in front of you. Ahem. So, er, it is a bit the same but it's by and large it's not. If you see what I mean.

Which only leaves me to make up my mind about the score. is it...? Could it possible be...? Yep, I reckon it is. I'm getting a bit jittery about all these Megagames Gremlin seem to be getting all the time, but, heck, if they deserve it then why not? Hurrah! Now load it up and give me another go.

GBH
£3.99 cassette
0742 753423
Reviewer: Andy Hutchinson

There are two things I'd like explaining about rallying. Firstly, why are the Swedish so good at it; and secondly, why do people watch it. The latter's the biggest mystery, I mean how much fun can you have watching a very muddy car with 17 headlights turning a corner. If that's your idea of fun, then head down Essex way and watch the Trevor's in their XR3i's zooming up and down outside McDonalds in the high street.

Moaning aside, rallying's a good sport to convert to the Speccy. It involves cars, it's got scenery and there's plenty of opportunity to zoom straight off the road into an on-coming tree. The latter of course is something you'll be doing plenty of, if (like me) your idea of rallying is going as fast as possible until you hit something. Brakes were not invented for kings of the road like me.

The Toyota rally is run through three countries; England, Mexico and Finland. These give you the opportunity to explore three utterly different kinds of terrain, namely: muddy, sandy and snowy. The different terrains mean that your motor will handle differently; England's easier to handle than the thoroughly skiddy Finland.

Your view of the road is shown through the windscreen of your Toyota. The game starts with you firing up your engine, waiting for the count-down and then kicking it into first gear and zooming off the starting line into the first bend and no doubt the first tree. Every time you change up a gear, a little graphic representation of your gearstick appears and miraculously changes up or down. There's also a handy rev counter and a gear indicator.

The car's go a brilliant feeling of inertia as you go zipping around the corners. In fact, choose the wrong gear and you could quite easily find yourself eating bark or rock. Knock the revs down in time however and the car will rejoin the road and you can ease your grip on the joystick.

Graphically the game's excellent. It all scrolls quickly and the animation is excellent, particularly of the chap holding the steering wheel. In fact if James reckons that this game is worth a Megagame at full price then I shall just have to give it a Megagame again.

WHAT A BARG!

Summertime, summertime, summer, summer, summertime! Hurrah - summer is here! And what better way to celebrate the advent of sunny, carefree days than by locking yourself in your bedroom and playing a load of Speccy games? With the seemingly unstoppable spread of budget software, we here at YS thought it would be quite a wheeze to sort out the brass from the dross. So take your seats and upset your neighbour's popcorn as JON PILLAR whisks you with shameless bias through a roundup of the best £3.99ers around.

DRIVING GAMES

4. Toyota Celica GT Rally
GBH/Issue 76
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

The most realistic racer of em all, reflected in the whizzy 3D through-the-windscreen viewpoint. Once you get the hang of the sensitive controls, you'll get a lot of fun out of the game. Perhaps a bit too clever to be of long-term appeal, its still neatly playable.

Label: Gremlin
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £10.99 Tape, £14.99 Disk
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Perverts are the sort of people who wear very strange underwear. So, it shouldn't be too strange to realise that rally drivers always seem to forget to mention that they wear asbestos knickers and have a serious line in flame retardant long johns. But perhaps they're not perverted - maybe they have botty combustion problems.

So, why not pull on your black leather driving gloves. As a rally driver extraordinaire, your mission is to boldly drive where thousands have driven before. To seek out new trees and strange rocks to wrap your car around. To chew up the straights like Popeye's Rotweiler on spinach and skillfully (or luckily!) negotiate your way around any up and coming bends. They're intent on mangling you up beyond your own mother's recognition and rendering your car useless for what seems like eternity. But this is not all because, just to add that extra bit of excitement, it's all against the clock.

Maybe that's being a little unfair as Toyota Celica Rally does make an attempt to be different. For example there's the option to create a co-driver. This is a vital part of the game as it enables you to examine a map of the course and mark on it an places of potential danger (strong right hand bend etc.). The computer will then flash the appropriate warning on the screen during the game at the preselected moment giving you that all important foresight of disaster.

Steering controls are very responsive, a little too responsive intact as pushing the joystick even a smidgen left or right often sends you diving into the undergrowth. All very well for would-be Casanova's, but it doesn't do much for you the placings table. Although you are assured in the manual that steering can be customized, you're never given the chance. There are some nice touches in the graphics department. Looking forwards through the windscreen the contours of the course are followed perfectly as you dive down and climb up the hills. Your windscreen even shatters on those all-too-frequent crashes.

The end result? Not too bad a game but not too good a one either, if you're lacking in patience or have a low boredom threshold then steer well clear of this one.

You'd need the temperament of a saint to get anywhere near the top 10 drivers, not to mention a lot of prayers.

CHRIS'S COMMENT:
Vroom! Vroom! Crashhh! Driving has never been so frustratingly difficult. You have to be a rally driver just to play the game. Boring, boring, borrinngg! This is one of those I can't get the hang of and don't want to.

Label: GBH
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape, N/A Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen

It was through battle weary eyes that I looked at Toyota Celica GT again. I've failed a few driving tests and crashed a few cars since I last saw it early in 1991, but the only thing that's changed on this game is it's label and price.

Toyota Celica GT involves racing across 30 widely varying courses. In three different countries, pitting your driving skills against the fearsome bends and vicious vegetation that line the route.

Options include manual or automatic gear-change, automatic centering for the steering wheel and even total reversal of all the controls for the really clever Dutch footwear admirers out there!

Unfortunately the game is let down badly by difficult control. It's difficult to stay on the road for even three seconds, never mind a whole race! I'm used to dodgy driving but I'm afraid, this was a bit too much, even with my flame proof undies on.

However nice presentation, detailed landscapes and the ability to create a co-driver, who can warn you of oncoming hazards and natter about his wife do give the game some appeal.

I asked a few questions about it as a full price game but you could definitely do worse than getting your hot hands on Toyota Celica GT as a budget release.

ALAN:
The cheeky pup hasn't even got a licence, no wonder he can't play the game. I can drive and I'm still not sure if I like it! It should make a dent in budget game sales though. (Steve and Garth know all about details, of course.).

Gremlin
Spectrum £10.99

Compared to the Amiga version (which received a healthy 87% back in issue 110), the Spectrum version is a tad disappointing. The graphics are a bit jerky, which makes life difficult as you can't really see what's in front in time to avoid hitting it. Take a look, but don't expect too much.