Retro Recall – Nitro: Three-player racing mayhem

Nitro is probably the most fun that I ever had with a top-down racing game on the Commodore Amiga. I can’t pinpoint exactly what made this game so special and so much better than the other racing games back in the day, but it just felt right. It felt addictive, challenging, included a nice three-player multiplayer mode and was just all-round awesome. A truly underrated gem.

And that soundtrack… Damn, it haunts me until this very day, and the four or so tunes just keep popping up in my mind when I least expect it. Nothing short of brilliant!

What is it?

Nitro is a top-down racer, one of many that graced the Amiga and other platforms during the 1990s. It’s in the same vein as Gremlin’s Super Cars or Team 17’s Overdrive, but it manages to beat those games in the sheer fun department. You have a few different environments and there are no weapons to use, but you can purchase some power-ups and improve your car’s stats. You can even switch between three different kinds of cars, according to your personal preferences, as the terrain heavily influences the behavior of your vehicle: race car, sports car and off-road buggy. You must keep an eye out for gas, as if it runs out, the race is over, but there are plenty of gas barrels waiting for you to pick them up during the race, as well as money for the upgrades.

There’s a multiplayer mode for up to three players, and while it isn’t split-screen (it uses the old trick of pulling back the last player into the center of the action), it was a tremendous amount of fun.

Oh, and the player portraits are obvious post-apocalyptic renditions of Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood and Roger Moore. Ah, the good old times when lawsuits weren’t such a huge deal!

Who made it?

Nitro was developed by Psygnosis, the software powerhouse who brought us some other instant classics including Shadow of the Beast, Agony, Lemmings or Destruction Derby, although acting more in a role of publisher rather than a developer. Later, during its Studio Liverpool days, the team created the popular WipEout series and F1 games until it was shut down by Sony in 2012.

What makes it a true classic?

Nitro just felt right. It had responsive controls, smooth animations and the races were full of adrenaline. It was exhilarating, with a constant fight for the first place in tracks that begin simple but soon are littered with all manners of obstacles. The night courses heated up the competition, with only the car headlights and the markings on the road to show you the way. The soundtrack is genius, as I mentioned before, and the main track has such an incredible rhythm that it just stays locked inside your head and you can almost feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins.

When someone asks me about the best 16-bit top-down racer, Nitro is always my answer. It’s not Micro Machines, or Super Cars, or even Super Off Road, and that means a lot. This game was something special, something for the ages.

Platforms: Amiga, Atari ST
Release date: 1990
Publisher: Psygnosis
Developer: Psygnosis

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