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An
Elektra Glide is actually a type of Harley Davidson
motorbike, but far from being a motorbike simulation,
this is a pretty speedy racing game. It's played in
true 3D style with the road viewed through the windscreen
of the Elektra Glide craft. The craft's control
console takes up the bottom of the screen and displays
the speed, score and time remaining.
The
object of the game is a very basic one -- all the player
has to do is whizz around the course before the time
limit runs out. If you manage to get round the course
before the limit is exceeded then you're given extra
time on the next course to be tackled. Each course follows
on from the other, so once the player starts racing
there's no break.
The
game has three different courses; Britain, America and
Australia, which can be selected on the title screen.
The other option is the choice of three types of steering
control envelopes. Each gives a different sensitivity
and thus suits different types of joysticks.
When
the game starts you immediately think 'gosh, where's
the landscape' -- because there isn't any, only the
road can be seen. Pushing the joystick forwards accelerates
the racer through the void . . . and lo and behold!
In fact the machine has been parked in a tunnel!! That's
why there's no landscape!!! Anyway, once free of the
darkened shroud of the tunnel you zoom into broad daylight.
The landscape is pretty featureless, apart from mountain
ranges on the horizon and the odd trees and signposts
on the roadside.
Elektra
Glide is quite an unusual race game in the respect
that you're the only car on the road -- there are no
other vehicles at all. What there is, though, are horrible,
frightening, sinister 3D objects which try to thwart
your racing progress. These take the form of spheres
and cubes and are found dotted frequently around the
course. The menacing spheres bounce along towards you
in attempt to home into your craft and the cubes, on
the other hand, are static. Both have to be dodged because
if they hit the craft you stop and consequently time
is lost.
Occasionally
a rocket whizzes overhead, and a little bit further
down the road drops a load of 'electrostatic columns'
onto the road. These again have to be dodged (usually
tricky, especially on a bend) and hitting them causes
the craft to slow down.
Other
features along the course are tunnels and forks. Tunnels
whizz up in 3D and you're plunged into darkness as you
go through (you can still see the road). Hitting the
side makes the craft stop, and again time is lost. There
are also forks in the road, usually right near the end
of a course, which present the player with a choice:
going left or right leads to separate courses.
Each
country has a different course and they also increase
in difficulty, the American one being the hardest with
hazards galore.
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