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, which I personally find more direct and fun, as found in Lotus Turbo Challenge 2.
Quite a few “gadget” options have been added, such as difficulty settings, choice of car from three options, background music selection (which replaces sound effects, how unfortunate!) and even a rather basic but welcome race editor. However, the game’s engine doesn’t evolve an inch. Some contemporary reviews mentioned a lack of speed and fluidity. This isn’t my view, but I only played it on an emulator.
Ultimately, my favourite episode remains the second; it was simpler and the races had more “personality” in my opinion. Or is it nostalgia? Perhaps it’s simply that killer detail: those voices that accompanied our stage completions, chanting “checkpoint!” or “congratulations!” which disappeared in this third episode…
The Sega Genesis version is logically titled Lotus 2. Finally, the trilogy would be re-released on Amiga as a compilation in 1994.
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