Please login to submit a screenshot

Tatsumi's most famous racing game, Buggy Boy, has now reached the Amiga in the wake of Elite's acclaimed Commodore 64 conversion. In the standard tradition of the genre, stages have to be completed within the allotted time limit, whilst avoiding obstacles which lie in the path of your Baja Bug.
At the beginning of the game, one of the five available courses is chosen – Offroad, North, South, East and West. Each of these is split into five stages, and it is these which have to be completed in a set amount of time.
With course selection made, you are presented with a view of the track from behind and slightly above the buggy. In the upper left of the screen a map shows the path of the selected course, with circular stage markers spread along its distance. As progress along the track is made, this map changes colour to mark your current position, and stage marker flags in the upper right of the screen are highlighted as they are completed. Other displays show time remaining, speed in kilometres per hour, score, and lo/hi gear selection.
Standard steering and acceleration/deceleration joystick conventions are used, and gear is toggled using the fire button. As the buggy follows the twisting course, obstacles such as walls, rocks, water, trees and lamp posts must be avoided at all costs, ore a sore head and a red bottom could be your lot. Collision with any of the hazards stalls the buggy to a crawl, and precious time is lost as speed is regained.
However, not all the objects scattered along the race tracks are to the detriment of the Baja Bug. Running over al log causes it to jump into the air, avoiding any speed-stealing hazards below. Hitting a stone or tree stump sets the buggy running along on two wheels, which allows the vehicle to get through otherwise impassable gaps.

Points are awarded for collecting the flags and steering through the point gates which lie along the way, and total point and time bonuses are awarded on completion of each stage. Time remaining is carried over into the next stage, and additional time is also given for any bonus gates passed through during stage.
As courses are negotiated, stages become more difficult, with more nasty obstacles to test buggy driver's skill. Luckily, a football which appears occasionally can be hit to give bonus points and light relief to the harried speed king!

Title Speed Buggy
Game Type Driving
Publisher Elite/Data East
Players 1
HD Installable Available
Submission Chris Vella Profiled Reviewer

Review
You might remember this classic game from the good old C64 years ago.
The PAL version of this game is known as Buggy Boy.

The object of the game is to drive along collecting colored flags and
finish the level before time runs out. There are 5 different levels that
you can select from in any order and only the scenery changes between them
all. The game is very simple to play, you use the joystick to move the
buggy left or right and the fire button switches between hi and low gear.
This is one of those games that is very simple but a lot of fun to play.
The graphics and sound are nice but it's the playability that stands out.
This is not an adrenaline pumping racing game but more of a relaxing
experience. The only thing you race against is time. There are some
bonuses thrown in during the game, running over a soccer ball for
instance, will boost your points total. There are also some nice touches
like your buggy flipping onto 2 wheels when you run over a log or steep
roadway and gates to race through earning you extra points or time.

In conclusion, This game is a classic example of a simple idea being
executed so well that the game just oozes playability. No fancy graphics
or sound, just very playable, and in the end thats what really matters. I
think you will enjoy this game and especially kids will enjoy it. A nice
little game to have in your software collection.

"Bugger the Buggy, I want a Vauxhall!"

Brilliant! Absolutley brilliant! What more can I say? A lot more than this. Buggy Boy is a game about Mrs. Smith pushing Baby David along to the shops. Nah, it is a racing game with a nice selection of buggies. It is the idea the developers had themselves which makes this a great game, not the racing aspect itself, it could have been a chase game, stunt game or even a checkpoint game, it would still be called brilliant.

The worse thing about this brilliant game is the graphics, quite blocky and not as good as Alfred Chicken. You can clearly see where the polygons are. However, whilst the graphics deseve an average grade, everything above that needs praise too. It is not all bad though...

The aim of the game is to get from the start of the course to the end of it. The game is not really a straight foward, flat race. You see, sometimes the path becomes a fork and goes in two directions, sometimes there are ramps for our Buggy to go on and the best thing of all, the the left and/or right side of the track, it goes up and our Buggy ''boy'' can go up it and drive on the sloped wall. Amazing!

The buggy is quite easy to control with the joystick. Going up ramps and walls is easy and proves to be quite addictive after several minutes of playing.

One other good thing is the sound and music. The sound effects are crisp and are good noises of buggy's going ''Vrmmm!''. The game also has great background music which is quite good to listen to whilst playing.

Buggy Boy is not very challenging as you start off, it has a good learning curve but after several rounds of racing, the challenge soon kicks in trying to get to places within the time limit and stuff.

I recommend Buggy Boy to those who do have an Amiga, it is one fantastic experience and shouldn't be missed, it is indeed a racing game but with special unique features like ramps and walls, it makes it very fun.

Good

- Original and fun
- Great sound and muisc
- Easy to control
- Not all flat

Bad

- The graphics

Summary:

Graphics - 5/10
Sound - 10/10
Music - 10/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Challenge - 8/10
Lifespan - 10/10
Enjoyment - 10/10
Overall - 10/10

Alternatives: There is no other game like it with the walls, but for pure racing fun, then I recommend Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing or Speed Freaks. This is a good enough game, I recommend this.



Reviewer's Score: 10/10 | Originally Posted: 01/26/03, Updated 01/26/03