Game Review: Action Biker (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

Most of the early games from Mastertronic were blatant copies of popular arcade games, or were re-releases from other publishers that they acquired to build up their range quickly. Action Biker, however, became one of their standout titles in 1985. A completely original game and a licenced one at that, managed to grab the attention of gamers thanks to the huge marketing campaign behind it…

A Licensed Game? We’ll Skip That Part…

Mastertronic made a big deal leading up to the release of Action Biker and their partnership with KP Foods. This was their first licensed game and gave both the game and company an incredible amount of publicity with a reported marketing push seeing the game promoted on no fewer than 12 million crisp packets. According to Mastertronic’s Bulletin Newsletter, the game was designed specifically as a joint promotion with KP’s character Clumsy Colin taking centre stage in the game.

It’s unclear what the financial arrangement was between the two or whether any license fee was actually paid. However, as one of Mastertronic’s more recognisable titles, and a marketing campaign that received plenty of press attention from the likes of Zzap 64 and Sinclair User it certainly seemed to be worth the effort.

Getting Started

Despite being a licensed game, the Commodore 64 version of Action Biker makes very little use of the Skips branding or Clumsy Colin as a character himself. Gameplay is simple enough – taking control of a high speed motorbike you have to ride around the town collecting various bike-related items getting yourself ready so you can enter a drag race.

There are 40 items to collect in total, scattered around the landscape, and each one appears after you have collected the previous one so you can’t just ride around and collect them all in a couple of minutes flat. You’re awarded points for each one you collect based on how quickly you get each one and how fast you’re riding at the time.

Playing The Game

Playing Action Biker is quite straightforward. Left and right on the joystick steer your bike, with forward and backwards control your acceleration. To pick up objects all you have to do is just ride over them. You have five lives and you lose one every time you collide with any of the scenery, fall off any of the taller obstacles you have to climb, or if you run out of fuel. You can top this up if you pull into the garage and there’s no limit to the number of times you can do this so it’s worth stopping there as often as you can.

Some of the items you pick up will add enhancements to your bike including a higher capacity fuel tank, gears to improve your speed and acceleration (you can shift between high and low gear by pressing fire), a turbo for your engine and others you’ll discover as you play. The final item you will collect is the entry ticket to the drag race itself.

Action Biker’s Identity Crisis

While Action Biker was a hit in the UK across all formats, it did give Mastertronic something of a dilemma when it came to its re-release for the American audience. As the market was unfamilar with Skips, let alone the character of Clumsy Colin, some slight rebranding was in order. The packaging and manuals of the dual-format (C64 and Atari) disk release removed all reference to KP Skips, and a new title screen was designed turning it into a generic motorcycle game.

It made no difference to the gameplay, and as the in-game title screen made no reference to the snack or Clumsy Colin it was an easy way to alter the game and keep everything intact with minimal effort.

Gameplay

Once you start playing Action Biker, it’s very easy to understand how it became so popular and why it’s still so fondly remembered today. It’s easy to get into right from the start and you’ll get to grips with the controls in no time at all so all you have to do is focus on finding all of the objects scattered around the game area. It’s a relatively small game map and after the first few plays you’ll soon remember where many of the items are.

What makes it so addictive is the challenge of getting to the objects. While many of them are in easy-to-reach open spaces, some need careful driving and steady control of your speed and brakes to get in and out of tight spots. That’s before you come to the tough ones on top of the rollercoaster and the raised structure that will cause beginners more than a few headaches…

The only weak link in the game is the drag race at the end. Once you’ve got your entry ticket all you have to do is go to the start point on the race track, ride as fast as you can in a straight line to the finish and it’s game over.

Graphics and Sound

Visually, Action Biker is nothing particularly outstanding. The game has very smooth full 360 degree scrolling and it’s quite understandable why this wasn’t converted to any of the other 8-bit systems other than the Atari as they simply wouldn’t have coped with the scrolling. Equally, the bike itself is very well animated and rotates in full 360 degrees to match the scrolling. The background detail could have been better, but it all works well enough so I don’t really have anything to complain about there.

The real highlight however, has to be the superb music from Rob Hubbard and this is something that is still rated as one of his best Commodore 64 pieces. In terms of the in-game music, what’s even more impressive is that he only used two of the C64’s three sound channels for the music itself, leaving the third free for the engine sound effects!

Overall

Action Biker is a real gem amongst the early Mastertronic releases. It’s a simple concept but proves to be challenging without being too frustrating. There’s a real sense of progression as some of the items allow you to upgrade your bike building up to the game’s conclusion and the superb music from Rob Hubbard is just the icing on an already delicious cake.

The only real disappointment as I said early is the rather abrupt ending to the game and the cheap cash-in on the Clumsy Colin name which had absolutely no connection to the game whatsoever. All that aside, this is easily one of the best games to grace the C64 from Mastertronic and one that no Commodore 64 owner should be without.

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