Continental Circus - Commodore 64 - F1 Racing !!!

This ported F1 racing game should have been called Continental Circuit... but it wasn't... due to a typo. I know... amazing!

It was an error which was to earn the game the esteemed accolade of 'Cock up of the Year' from magazine Spectrum User in 1989. This unfortunate typo was carried to the Spectrum version also you see. As Darth Vader would probably have said if one of his Officers had gifted it to him on his birthday, "Your failure is complete". Oops!

So here we have it then. Continental Circus on the Commodore 64 published by Virgin in 1989 and based on the Arcade coin-op from Taito in 1987. A Formula 1 game of sorts. Below is the Channel's Youtube review.

Beyond the naming boo boo, what we have here though is a fairly decent racer. Much better than Wec Le Mans which we reviewed a little earlier and was attempting a similar thing.

Set over 8 different tracks, the objective of the game is to qualify your car up the ranks within a single lap to progress to the next circuit. It's not direct racing, but more of a trial. There are no points awarded or World Championship to win against named F1 drivers.

You start with a ranking of 100 and this decreases by 1 each time you overtake one of the drone cars on track. Get to the required rank within the lap and hooray, you've qualified. If you fail, it's not all doom and gloom as there are a few continues available to you and the good news is, you keep your rank from the previous attempt. This is most welcome and adds to the playability greatly.

Any collision with another car or the scenery results in the car smoking and then eventually catching fire, then game over. The car can be repaired by pulling into the pits, but this of course will cost you time and valuable qualifying positions. You are up against the clock as well so Continental Circus does present somewhat of a challenge which will take quite a few goes to master.

The sound is good, but he main sprite of the car could perhaps have been a bit better. The changing weather conditions are a very nice thing to see on an 8 Bit system which adds to the fun. This feature was also present on the ZX Spectrum version previously reviewed.

Overall Continental Circus is a solid game I would have enjoyed back in the day. There are better racers out there, but this is well worth a play.

Nick :o)

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