It’s time to kick our gaming up a gear, leaving the frantic and addictive Robotron in the distance for we’re now bunny-hopping and tearing up the place as we arrive at No.#50 in the Your Sinclair Top 100. Dig out the Kick Start theme music and play it at full volume as Enduro Racer has just skidded into our homes!
When Enduro Racer first appeared as an arcade game from SEGA back in 1986, it really made people stop and stare. I myself played this game in its original form, which was a Trial/Motorcross bike with its wheels removed. You sat upon it, steering with the handlebars, using the throttle and brakes as expected, but when it came to the jumps you needed to lean back on the bike to pop a wheelie. The conversion was handled by the now global Activision Blizzard, then just know as Activision in 1987, created by Alan Laird, Ian Morrison from Giga Games and also Focus Creative Enterprises Ltd; they did a truly storming job.
It’s a simple affair within Enduro Racer – you race! That’s it, you have a track in front of you that is littered in logs & rocks along with numerous other hazards and with a carefully timed wheelie – then into a huge jump – you will hopefully get past these obstacles without losing any precious seconds.
There are many racing games that people hold to their hearts; we’ve already seen Buggy Boy in this Top 100, but Enduro Racer has something that you really can’t put your finger on. You can direct people to the unforgiving nature of the game, testing the true skill of the gamer behind the screen, as you’re allowed virtually no mistakes if you want to succeed in completing the first track; the excellent graphics and speed delivered from the arcade to our 48K & 128K machines or the amazing air you can grab on your bike if you pull a wheelie at the right moment. All of these things and other little touches make this arcade conversion one of the greatest games on the ZX Spectrum.
Whatever it is Enduro Racer is a game you really need to have played. Mind you it will not allow anybody to win and losers not need apply, for you need nerves of steels and a saddle of leather if you want to see any sort of finish line.
Originally published July 9, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
