Game Review: Speed King (Atari, Mastertronic)

The Atari 8-bit release of Speed King is something of a curiosity. Released on the Commodore 64 version, originally published by Digital Integration and later re-released by Mastertronic, the Atari version is a Mastertronic exclusive. However, instead of getting a standalone release, it was only made available on disk and as a B-side for the C64 version, as if it was nothing more than an afterthought.

So from the offset, it does make you wonder whether the game was any good or not, or if Mastertronic had such little confidence in the game that it was just bundled so they could appease Atari owners to at least they had released it…

First Impressions

When you first load up Speed King, you’re presented with what looks like the same title screen as the C64 original. You’re given plenty of options including a choice of 10 tracks (the same as the C64, all based on real world circuits), how many laps to race, whether to practice or go to the full race and the difficulty setting.

At this point everything seems fine and once you’re happy with everything you can hit start and get racing…

Who Put Glue On The Track?

And this is where things go rapidly down hill. Despite your bike apparently hitting a top speed of 250 mph – higher than the C64 version – it certainly doesn’t feel like it. The game runs at a sluggish pace and never feels as if it’s running at anything resembling  the sort of speed you’d expect from a motorcycle racing game. Pushbike maybe, but nothing with an engine behind it.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the bike’s handling is unresponsive and pushing the joystick left and right to steer has an unforgivable delay in doing whatever you expect it to. If you’re trying to overtake any other bikes in front of you then you might as well forget it here as you end up fighting the controls more than you do the pack of competitors on the track.

Speed King’s Quirks and Frustrations

It’s not just the sluggish controls that let Speed King down though. Apart from having the manoeuvrability of a housebrick, the core game controls have been carried over from the Commodore 64 version and make little sense to racing game veterans. Fire is used to accelerate and if you let go of the fire button your bike – as you would expect – slows down automatically.

There are no controls to brake but your bike has six gears and these can be cycled through using up and down on the joystick. However, you push up on the joystick to move down a gear, and pull down on the joystick to go up a gear. It’s a completely unnatural way of controlling the game and makes it more difficult than it needs to be.

Am I Missing Something?

I mentioned earlier that you can choose to practice or race on each track, but there is something significant missing from the Atari version of Speed King. For some unknown reason, there is no option to race across all ten tracks in Championship Mode seen in the original version. It’s just a single race on one track and that’s it.

This reduces the long term playability immensely. All it really leaves you with is little more than a series of single tracks where the only objective is to beat your personal best times and overall race positions which quickly feels repetitive.

Graphics and Sound

As with the Commodore 64 version, there is little variety in the visuals apart from some slight colour changes to the backgrounds for each track. The animation for bike itself is slightly better animated here with a couple of extra frames as it leans to the left or right going around corners although it’s not quite as detailed. Nor are the sides of the track itself, intended to give the illusion of speed, the segments of which seem to be too spaced out. And talking of the sides of the track, there are some glitches present where the track breaks up at times, spoiling the illusion of speed even further.

Sound, like the C64 version, isn’t much to speak of, with just some basic engine effects and no title or in-game music at all.

Overall

I’ve been a fan of racing games ever since I first played the likes of Pole Position in the arcades so I really wanted to like Speed King. But frankly there wasn’t really much to enjoy while playing it. I found myself fighting against the game at every step of the way, and it was just far too frustrating to want to spend time on it when there are much better racing games out there. It’s a shame because the Atari can deliver good, high speed racers… but this just isn’t one of them.

* * *

You know what we think but why not share your thoughts on this game! Let us know what you think of it in the comments below, or add your own score using the slider in the summary box at the top of the review!

Please follow and like us: