Game Review: Kikstart II (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

After the huge success of the original Commodore 64 version of Kikstart, which sold over 100,000 copies on Mastertronic after an initial release on the Mr Chip label, Shaun Southern sought to improve the game even further with the Commodore 128 only version, which had more courses, a computer opponent, and new obstacles.  There was also a very different Commodore 16 and Plus/4 version by Shaun which was based more on the arcade game Superbike, and still just as playable too.  Clearly, the popularity of the game was matched by the TV series Kick Start that it was unofficially based on, which was still going very strong in 1987, especially the junior versions.  It was perhaps then inevitable that a sequel would be made – and how could Shaun Southern improve on the original and keep all the playability and fun that it had?

Over the Bunnyhop

When loading the game, you are presented with a very nice loading screen from Andrew Morris, which certainly adds to the presentation.  This also shows on the title screen too with your biker ready to take on a course with a hill in the background – not too dissimilar to the ones at the Easton Neston estate in Northamptonshire where most of the TV versions of Kick Start took place.  Already this heightens the excitement as if things are improved here, this hopefully would bode well – and when the game does load, a more than pleasant little title tune plays in the background, and after that loading screen shows once more, the title screen with all the options appears.

The Array of Options

The main title screen has several options, as well as a nice Kikstart II logo at the top (the same as the one on the loading screen) and a scrolling message to welcome you to the game.  The message gives you some useful instructions as to what to do on some of the obstacles before giving way to Shaun’s usual sense of humour, talking about Gordon the Gopher, Australian soap operas and music before a round of hellos.  Once this scrolling message ends, it shows you the course records, and the obstacles with lettered keys, which is handy to note for the course designer, which we will come to later.

At the bottom left are five icons, controlled by the cursor keys to highlight and RETURN to select.  From left to right, you can choose to commence play, see the best times, enter the course designer, select one or two players, or edit the names. When editing the names, enter using the keyboard and press RETURN to go back.  At any other time, the letter keys when selected chooses the courses from A to X, and Z giving you a random selection of those courses, so you do not know what to expect until you play them.  The icons and layout at the bottom are very easy to use and means you can literally get going straight away once happy with your course selection.  Player 1 is in port 1, player 2 (if two player mode is selected) is in port 2.

That is a Twenty Second Penalty There

When you start, as with the original, player 1 is at the top half of the screen, and player 2 (or the computer opponent) is at the bottom.  One improvement over the original (and was present in the Commodore 128 only version) is the computer rider, who does reasonably well on all the courses and presents a good challenge to ride against.  There are a couple of obstacles that it gets stuck on, but generally is a good barometer to how well you are doing on each course.  The little introductory sound gives away to the newer improved rendition of the Kick Start TV series theme, with extended second section, and off you go.

Straight away you will notice the little speedometer at the top left.  This helps you gauge you speed correctly, and pushing right on the joystick increases the speed, left decreases.  However, once you are at your chosen speed, you do not need to move left or right.  Up will do a wheelie, which is handy for small rises such as up bricks for example, or to show off, and fire will do the jump based on your speed.  The jumps are handy for getting over small gaps in the ground or to launch yourself off ramps, and especially the large ski jump ramps which will make a massive jump if taken at maximum speed.  As you will soon observe, although you can take the first two or three courses at mostly full speed, you will encounter obstacles where speed is not always of the essence.

Obstacle Course

There are many obstacles in Kikstart II, some of which were from the original game or its Commodore 128 version, and plenty of new ones too which make for interesting courses.  Perhaps most notable is the fire, which sets off a flame of fire and you need to time your riding past whilst the flame is out, or you are burned with the flame a little explosion sound effect.  There are mud, grass and brick ramps go to up and down, and the brick ramps cannot be taken at full speed.  You also have wooden gates and wooden logs; both need to be ridden slowly (and without any wheelie or else you will fall off.)   There are bunny hops in the ground, and that ground can also have mud to slow you down, and rough ground where you can only go over so fast.

There are the tyres which you need to ride fast over, grass, brick walls, and some obstacles you can ride over such as telephone boxes and barrels, but you cannot land on them.  There are also the picnic tables to jump or ride on or off too as well as water to get over (either jump or via a ramp in most cases) and breeze blocks, which must be taken at certain speeds.  Lastly, there are the springs, which you land on top of to bounce off them for an extra jump, and how far you go depends on your speed.  All in all, a varied set, and with the speedometer meaning that you can see how fast you are going, you can easily work out which speed is the maximum (or minimum) you need to get to in order to take the obstacles on, removing the need for guesswork once you get the hang of it, and really shows a sensible but vital tweak in improving the gameplay and making it a better experience.

Somersaulting Over

One of the best features in the original Kikstart was the way your rider would somersault over the handlebars when falling off, complete with iconic sound effect.  That is still very much here.  If you do crash, the course scrolls along until your rider can be safely put back in a flat location (such as on top of grass, bricks and so on) and if on a gate or log, at the right speed so you do not fall off straight away.  Inevitably though this adds hugely to your time, and seems to be a much quicker rate of increasing time, so even if you must ride some obstacles slower and clean, it still means overall you would get a faster time.  Next to the speedometer is the current time on the course, and when completed, that time, with a total time on the right-hand side, so you can keep your eye on how well you are doing.  At the start, each course record is 50 seconds, so get your time below that, and you can set that

Snow Joke

The daytime courses make up a fair number of the set of twenty-four courses, but as you explore, you will also see that there is the snow mode.  Everything is capped with the white stuff, and you will also note that your bike is somewhat slower to accelerate, which needs to be considered when getting over the obstacles.  This is more so if you need to decelerate for the likes of the wooden gates and logs, which always are craftily placed after a ramp somewhere which you may have been tempted to jump over.  It is very well done and after a while you can master the different acceleration to your advantage, getting your jumps timed and over the water that just handily has been placed there after a ramp.

Late at Night

Between eight and half past seven, you would have expected the courses to be oh so quiet.  But no. The night courses are all pitch black with an effective use of the blue colour to show some of the obstacles so you can see what they are, to a degree. Add that to the fire really lighting up these courses with their flames, and it is a different but very nice addition to the game, meaning a more varied challenge as you take these on.  Inevitably the lack of visibility means for some obstacles the outline is your key, such as the barrels or the telephone boxes or springs, but it is a sensible approach and one that does mean you get to enjoy these the more you play – more so if your opponent has been caught by the fire and you have timed your ride past to perfection.

The Power of Twenty-Four

Having the twenty-four courses and the different settings such as night and snow really does add to the variety, and more so if you choose the option to ride five courses at random with key Z.  This is especially good fun in two player mode against friends, where both of you will not know what course it is until you play.   The variety of courses also means that there are some which you can do massive jumps over and go flat out, whereas others are more proper trials courses where you need to get the right speed for the obstacles and the sections, so that you can ride them sensibly without falling, but progress well.  Timing to get past the fire does take some practice too, but once you get into the swing of things, this can be well worked out and it does mean that you can soon be setting those course records as you need.

Playability Perfection

It is well worth noting that all the tweaks to the game have made it a much more playable and enjoyable experience overall.  You can now work out the right speed to take each obstacle, and if there are a series of them, which approach will work best for them.  The controls are responsive as they need to be, so if you are too slow doing a wheelie, you fall, and it will be your own fault instead of the controls.  The jumps all work well and that satisfying feeling of clearing a ramp with a wooden gate and seeing the computer attempt to land on it and fall really does give you a smile on your face, and those responsive controls really help to make the right decision, even if the game pace of some of the courses can be frenetic if you are attempting to jump past a lot of fire, especially in the night courses.  That alone as an improvement shows attention to detail and making the game enjoyable for all, and should not be overlooked.

Course Designer

And if that was not enough, how about making your own courses?  Well, you can, and the designer is an absolute delight to use.  It uses the same icon menu system as on the title screen, with cursor keys and RETURN used.  You can go back to the title screen, load and save courses from both tape and disk, choose which course to replace with your own design, select (with the scissors icon) whether you want to start a new course or modify an existing one, with the information I icon showing you the obstacles and what keys to press for each one, which proves to be really useful seeing them on screen.  Moving the cursor uses the < and > keys, with the plus and minus being to insert or delete sections as you need.  You can also then select A to X for each of the objects, and for example if selecting a ramp or bricks or grass, you can specify the height needed.  Once done, the icon selected is a footprint at the bottom, and you can paste that at the cursor point.

Soon enough you will be creating a ramp with some water, a grass ramp leading to a ski jump with a tricky bunny hop just before, and some fire positioned to be timed with the jump over from a brick ramp to a wooden gate or log, with just enough time to get past.  You can easily create a mud ramp and then go back slightly to add an obstacle next to it if you do not want the end of the ramp to stick out a bit, or a brick ramp on to some brick walls to descend or wheelie down on to a breeze block, and the possibilities are endless.  The key is to leave enough flat sections in between so your rider can be repositioned as needed when they crash and make the course as fair as you can.

Once you get the hang of the designer, it becomes simple to make a course as simple or as difficult as you wish, and in some cases if replacing or doing a new or modify course, you do get an are you sure prompt too so you can be definite in your decision before you do it.  Similarly, you can press any of the obstacle keys if you selected the wrong letter, so if you selected a mud ramp up with A, do not select the height, just press say C for the grass ramp, and off you go.  When replacing a course, you can also select whether you wish this to be snow, day, or night, as well as naming the new course, and then choosing to replace as needed with a final yes and no confirmation.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Kikstart II are improved from the original, with Andrew Morris really giving them lots of colour and variety. The loading screen is well drawn, and in the game, all the ramps, water, obstacles, and the bikes themselves all have plenty of definition, and of course the iconic somersault when the rider comes to grief is still there too.  It really does pop out at you and the smooth scrolling split screen really does add to the polish.  The title theme and in-game themes are reasonable enough, with the latter being an extended version of the Kick Start TV theme (Be My Boogie Woogie Baby by Mr Walkie Talkie) as well as some good sound effects when riding, and the iconic sound effect when falling too.  It all adds some functionality to the game and really does improve the look and feel ever so well.

Final Thoughts

Kikstart II does not just improve on the original Kikstart – it enhances it in a way that feels so right on so many levels.  The graphics and sound are much improved over the original, but the key playability aspects have been tweaked and improved to make the game a much fairer, and allows anyone to pick up and play relatively quickly.  The variety of the courses and the different conditions such as the night and snow, as well as some new obstacles, give them a real challenge to try and beat the best times.  All of this would be more than enough, but then add in the easy-to-use course designer, where you can make courses to really test your mettle and have a great race with your friends (or the computer) afterwards, and that feels like the icing on a massive cake that is brimming with goodness.

When games journalists have added this into their top Commodore 64 games lists, and often this has been their only budget game of choice, it shows you not just how good the game was back then, but how good the game still is now on reflection.  It is a perfect mix of playability and fun that has you always wanting to load it up for several races, or to try your hand at any new course designs you have made.  This original and best Commodore 64 version of this game set new standards for budget games, and any future classic would be compared to this as a barometer of how good the game was, it is that good.  Quite simply, you must have this game in your collection, even if not a collector, just to load, play and enjoy, time and time again.  An essential purchase.

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