After the brilliance that was Batty we don’t have to travel far as we journey to our next game in the Your Sinclair Top 100 as Buggy Boy – at No. #64 – is also from the Elite Systems Ltd. publishing house too.
Buggy Boy was originally released on the arcade from Tatsumi in 1985; also known as Speed Buggy it arrived in a special driving cabinet. Elite then brought a great looking conversion to the ZX Spectrum – along with other home computers in 1988 – and it scored highly with fans and critics alike.
The basic idea of Buggy Boy is that you race along one of the five available tracks, gathering flags for points – and driving under points and time banners for extra of both – all the while trying to a) pull of some nice jumps b) trying not to crash and explode. Point B was exceptionally difficult to avoid with the buggy travelling at a frantic speed plus numerous obstacles in the road, the chances are that you shall explode quite quickly.
All except for the “Offroad” map Buggy Boy is a very enjoyable game, and it’s odd that the worst map in the game is the first choice for new players to pick. The first track to pick is a continuous loop, with time-stages, lots of places to turn into a ball of flame and quite frankly not much fun. However, if you go straight for the North, South, East & West maps you’ll enjoy this bouncing car game very much.
Buggy Boy needs a play (or a replay) as it’s easy to pick up and looks rather grand too.
Originally published June 25, 2016. Updated November 14, 2022.
