Lotus 3: The Ultimate Challenge
| Developer: Magnetic Fields | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Gremlin | Sound: |
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| Year: 1992 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Racing | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 2 simultaneous | Rating: |
8/10 | |
The final instalment of the Lotus trilogy trilogy is a synthesis of the previous two, offering both a “championship” mode where you’ll qualify if you manage to reach the top of the leaderboard (similar to Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, note the return of pit stops) and a “time trial” mode, in my opinion more direct and fun, such as could be found in Lotus Turbo Challenge 2.
Quite a few “gadget” options have been added, such as difficulty settings, choice of car among three, background music (which replaces sound effects, what a shame!) and even a rather basic but welcome track editor. However, the game engine doesn’t evolve one bit. Some reviews from that time report a lack of speed and smoothness. This is not my view, but I’ve only played it on an emulator.
In the end, my favourite episode remains the second one; it was simpler and the races conveyed more “personality” to my taste. Or is it nostalgia? Or perhaps it was simply the killer detail: those voices that accompanied our progression through stages, chanting “checkpoint!” or “congratulations!” which have disappeared in this third opus…
The Sega Genesis version is logically titled Lotus 2. Finally, the trilogy was re-released on Amiga as a compilation in 1994.
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