Worth several hours of intense play any way you look at it, Ironman Offroad Racing is a simple arcade game that has you racing a big off-road buggy against some of the (then, at least) biggest figures in off-road racing, including the eponymous endorser of the game, "Ironman" Ivan Stewart (with a very impressive array of off-road wins under his belt).
The game is pretty simple race around various closed tracks, win cash prizes and buy upgrades and nitrous for your car. Bonuses will periodically appear on the track, either cash or nitrous up for grabs by the first driver who reaches them, and the stakes rise as more bonuses are collected.
Worth several hours of intense play any way you look at it, Ironman Offroad Racing is a simple arcade game that has you racing a big off-road buggy against some of the (then, at least) biggest figures in off-road racing, including the eponymous endorser of the game, "Ironman" Ivan Stewart (with a very impressive array of off-road wins under his belt).
The game is pretty simple race around various closed tracks, win cash prizes and buy upgrades and nitrous for your car. Bonuses will periodically appear on the track, either cash or nitrous up for grabs by the first driver who reaches them, and the stakes rise as more bonuses are collected. This bonus and upgrade system is well implemented it is paramount that the player upgrades
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their vehicle as their finances allow them, for they make a real difference to various aspects of performance and thus the ability to compete against more difficult tracks, and of course, opponents who will be upgrading their own cars. You have the option of tightening your turning with tyres, but that's useless if your truck can't handle the bumps, which require better shocks. Of course, it doesn't matter if you can turn on a dime if your truck simply can't keep up with the rest, for which you'll need to upgrade top speed and acceleration. In the case you can't keep up anyway, there's the nifty nitrous, which leaves a big cloud of gas and hopefully your opponents in you wake. But don't waste the stuff, you need to buy it and as the game progresses you will likely have to use it.
It then follows that the progression of difficulty of the game is actually fairly well paced, in that it is consistent. Interestingly, however, the tracks are presented in a progressive ‘triangular’ order in that each round the player passes, one more track will be added to the list until you are doing the full complement. Also, every repetition of the track, the direction of the race will switch, adding a little bit of variety. Personally while somewhat more innovative than a single progression of races, I found it eventually somewhat tedious to have to complete the easier tracks right at the beginning before tackling the difficult ones at the end.
The graphics and the presentation gave me the impression that I was racing matchbox cars, as rendered from an isometric perspective in a vivid colour palette (I used VGA though standard 16 colour isn’t too bad either), all I could garner were vague details on a small mass of pixels that plunged and rocked its way around the screen. Regardless, it was plenty enough to be able to discern and control my truck. Like the rest, the background and scenery (whatever scenery there is to a whole lot of dirt track) was all mainly functional in nature, strangely striking this balance between detail and simplicity that allowed for unhindered gameplay. Whilst the hills and the bumps and the crevasses the truck seemed to have to negotiate were prohibitively unreal, they affected the handling and the race significantly to become an essential feature that one simply had to take into account when looking for the best lines. I must say that the collision physics are quite hilarious as your truck will simply bounce.
What really sold me about this game, though, was the Adlib soundtrack. Despite the hi-hat noise sounding more like a constipated squeak (which never fails to crack me up when I decide to squeak along with it), the music loops are in their own way compelling and charming not to mention quite suitable. This to me was like the icing on a cake- a finishing touch yet essential for the flavour. It seems to me that most games can have good everything from graphics, structure to gameplay and yet fail at the sound, but this one doesn’t, despite niggling channel limitations.
I’ve left the biggest fun factor till the last - this is one example of those games where replay value is multiplied by having multiplayer. Up to three players (at least, when I first played it) can control a truck, but not Ironman’s. His AI is actually quite well done and difficult to match. It’s a slightly tedious matter upgrading the truck and working through the tracks over and over again, but in a healthy competitive environment, it becomes a battle for funds, bonuses and ultimately survival. Having another player or two adds a whole new dimension to the game, though I must say it gets pretty crowded to have three players on the same keyboard (almost as crowded as cramming 4 players to play Gauntlet).
Overall, Ironman Offroad Racing is a strongly balanced bundle of fun best enjoyed with two of three people battling it out for dirt supremacy. The simplicity and sometimes crudity is offset by the implementation of the details, such as the animations, as well as the music and the attention to what little realism there is in the physics. To me, this is one of those little classics that will always be good to go when the fancy strikes.
