Outrun Europa review - Sega Master System

Life as a secret agent usually involves dangerous assignments in sunny countries, ending up in bed with some exotic, curvaceous female(s). In your spare time you usually infiltrate some big crime lord's castle/apartment/undersea base, crack his safe and take photographs of his secret plans with your mini spy-o-matic camera, before escaping in your 202 mph Ferrari F40.

However, in the deadly assignment dramatically dubbed "Outrun Europa", things have gone drastically wrong. The endless supply of ready 'n' willing women has suddenly dried up and your Ferrari's been purloined by the evil crime lord who wants his secret plans back (and doesn't mind getting a limited edition Ferrari into the bargain).

Now it's your job to grab the nearest form of transport possible and begin a trans-European road chase to catch up with the thieves behind the wheel of your Ferrari. Once the car and the plans are safely re-appropriated, it's time to head towards Secret Service HQ and successfully complete the mission. To help you in your escapades, you're able to make good use of the weaponry featured in each mode of transport (even the jetski in this game has an in-built rocket launcher!). Aiding your mission still further are the extra shields and fuel canisters dotted around the landscape. Simply by running over these, the goodies are collected.

However, things aren't looking good. The crime boss has massed together all the crim-driven vehicles he can, and he's sent them all chugging along in your general direction. Suffice to say that giving your monkey ass a good dusting is top of their list of priorities!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

I must admit that I was very disappointed by this offering. As you can see from the screenshots, Outrun Europa isn't really too bad in the graphics department - but all the effort on the visual side of things should have been directed more towards the playability of the product. Rather than concentrate on the action (which is most important after all), the programmers have spent a lot of effort on the massive roadside obstacles. The gameplay itself suffers in that there isn't actually much to do - the graphics may be different in each level, but your activities remain much the same. Also, the more eagle-eyed among you may notice that there's never more than one enemy vehicle on the road at one time! Another gripe I have concerns the pick-ups. Collecting these for extra fuel and shields is all-important, but the jerky scrolling makes it virtually impossible to tell when they're coming until they've zoomed by. Outrun Europa isn't a disaster - it's just a shame that more effort wasn't spent on tightening up the gameplay.

This certainly had plenty of potential - the idea of different modes of transport, each sporting deadly weapons is great - but unfortunately the game is let down by jerky 3D and lack of variety. The roadside objects, although large and impressive, are completely unnecessary. They should have been dumped and replaced by more enemy cars and faster, smoother 3D. The main problem, however, is that there are basically only two different levels: water and road. The bike, Porsche and Ferrari levels are all identical except for the main sprite and roadside objects. The same fault is apparent in the jetski and speedboat levels. If it's racing thrills and spills you're after, check out Fire and Forget II, Chase HQ, Battle Outrun or Outrun - they're all much more exciting than this.