Zogging Hell!!!

Reeking, virtually, of Super Sprint and a whole host of Micromachines games, P.D.R. is a overhead rally game. Considering this was released at the same time as Sega Rally and Ridge racer, it was quite brave ignoring the new thrust in 3D graphics. We all know that the Jag's 3D is good enough to handle Sega Rally if really pushed, but copping out and going 2D really was a bit poor. Another 16bit style title, P.D.A. is nevertheless quite good. The car handles nicely and pulling off turns is quite easy. Progress is fairly rapid. On my second go I had already reached the third week of racing. Unfortunately all this is ruined by the terrible skill tests. Every so often you are faced with a level where you have to dodge cones and reverse into spaces. Quite frankly this is crap. Clearly you must have a good grasp of driving otherwise they wouldn't let you in the car in the first place. It's also frustratingly difficult. You can zoom round the tracks leaving the computer driver eating your dust, and then you come up against the skills challenge, and loose all your money (forcing you to restart everything), purely because you hit a few cones. The two player mode is crud as well. No simultaneous action here, you take it in turns to race each track, trying to beat each others times. Like real life but exceedingly dull. We want to race each other; to gasp as you pull off a dramatic round the corner overtake, to roar with rage as your mate zooms past you again on the straight and to laugh out loud when he crashes full whack into a tree. That's real racing. It's quite addictive in places but dissappointing in others. Competant but unadventurous.

Zogging Hell Rating: 7/10

Cheats

Freeze opponent: (During gameplay) 6.
Un-freeze opponent: (During gameplay) 9.
Change car colour: (At car purchase screen) Up or Down.