Skidmarks

Anyone who remembers the classic Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart's Off-Road Racing, Codemasters MicroMachines, or, if you’re even older - Super Sprint - will be familiar with the basis of this muddy isometric rally racer from New Zealands' Acid Software.
Thrash it out in instantly playable arcade action with, what was at the time, some great realistic graphics (each vehicle was made up of 800 sprites, 32 rotations with five elevations and five pitches plus convincing light sourcing effects!). Ok the front wheels didn’t turn when steering but apart from that it looks good enough!
The name of the game drops a hint (no, not the drivers pants after a close race!); you start with a nice clean track and within a lap it’s carved up from your tyre squealing power-sliding antics leaving impressive marks in the mud and tarmac.

Stick with this track for more frantic races and the tyre marks stay too which is fun. Add into this a simple control method and highly addictive gameplay, the result is a fantastic racer, especially with friends in multi-player mode which extended the longevity way beyond playing against the computer.
On the Amiga, this game for me was a landmark in simple but addictive gameplay. The way the vehicles handle and how they are affected by the terrain, especially over jumps, will keep players busy to stay on course while fighting for the chequered flag. Beating a friend by pixels right at the end of a close fought race is extremely satisfying... and normally results in an instant rematch! The physics are not realistic, hitting an opponent will sometimes boost both your speeds (normally into a corner!) but it’s part of the fun to time an impact up a ramp to boost your jump and hopefully their car off course, the focus is definitely on fun arcade racing rivalry.
Originally (on the Amiga at least) the game came on two disks with the second disk containing the track data. An update to this followed expanding the amount of tracks available and adding a crazy off road cow-on-wheels vehicle!! If you haven’t seen a pink cow power-sliding round a 90 degree bend at speed then you have missed without doubt one of the best racing games of the early 90's in Skidmarks!
This game would make an excellent port over to current mobile phone technology so you can get skidmarks on the move!