Game: Enduro Racer
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1987
Part of a series of early games on the Master System to rival Nintendo's Black Box series, Enduro Racer was essentially Sega's answer to Excitebike. Where Excitebike used a horizontal scrolling effect, Sega decided that a diagonal scroll for Enduro Racer would somehow create a "stunning 3D effect". It did not. The result of the diagonal scroll is that players can see less oncoming obstacles than with the horizontal scroll, and they have to constantly steer right a little bit too.
Gameplay consists of ten point-to-point stages with vague themes, lots of ramps which appear to slow the bike down more than anything, and a varying amount of obstacles which usually only serve to get in the way and cause damage to the bike. There are also opponents to race; overtaking them gains points once the stage is complete, but crashing into them will incur yet more damage to the bike.
Graphically the game uses a dull colour palette, some fairly unimpressive and 2D objects for cars, bikes and scenery effects, and choppy scrolling. It's tough to get to any stage past the 4th or 5th, and crashes become almost unavoidable as the game progresses, irreparably damaging the bike. The music that plays behind gameplay gets old pretty fast, and the sounds of the motorbike are mixed a little loud for my liking.
Overall this was the kind of game you might have expected to play in 1987, especially with many home computers still on the market. It was a time before we really knew what console gaming could achieve, and video games were just little pieces of software that you could waste some time playing around with, rather than a deeper experience. Excitebike is still better, though.
Rating: 28/100
Grade: F
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