Pole Position

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"First Atarisoft brings us excellent ports of such runaway hits as Centipede, Defender, Pac-Man, and Dig Dug -- and now this? Or did Atarisoft not have a chance to begin working on this title before INTV purchased the rights to these games? In either case, whether Atarisoft or INTV was responsible for this, one thing is certain -- this is not what I would expect from either developer. The graphics are pretty run-of-the-mill for an Intellivision port. The opening music and green light sound effect are very nice and sound just like they do on the arcade game, but the engine sound is weak, using only one sound channel.
"The one overwhelming aspect of this game is that the race car is nearly impossible to control. I still haven't figured out how to successfully make turns! No matter which direction I hold the controller, I always find my race car veering toward the side of the road and into another race car or a road sign. Also, the pseudo-scaling is awkward. The other race cars seem to 'jerk' back and forth across the lanes when the player is approaching a turn. Combined with the goofy play control, this makes the game totally unplayable for beginners.
"One aspect of the game that makes it stand out above the other ports is that the player can choose to race on one of four tracks. Besides that, there is nothing that makes this port worthwhile to play. Once again, I can honestly say that I prefer the Atari 2600 port over this. Buy it for the sake of collectibility, otherwise don't bother."Rating: 2/5 -- Mike Hayes