Never has a game been better named than Dutch Ernieware software house. Free with every cassette they should give you a darkened room to go and lie down after you've finished playing.
    As well as keyboard control, you can use Cursor, protek, AGF, Kempston or Interface II type joysticks. There's a much needed Pause facility, giving you time to wipe your brow, and also an Abort Game option for those really trying moments when mere death is not enough. Step back to old Baghdad. Bung the player on a flying carpet and you've got Zaxxon with Curly-toed slippers. But if they should have left you in the present day if you've got to beleive there are military installments out in the desert as well.
    But enough of this and on with the fray - and the first person to make jokes about a frayed carpet gets a scorpion up their kilt. The game is basically a right-to-left horizontal scroll and shoot 'em up. Climb on your carpet and you can move up and down, left to right. The first hazards are pillars and buildings which have to be avoided.
    It's great fun zipping along on your carpet, especially as you can fire at the other magic carpet riders that come your way, as well as the snakes, scorpions, bats and dragons. The graphics aren't the greatest, but the speed of the gameplay more than makes up for that.
    The reason why you want to blast other carpet riders out of the skies, is that you're an undercover agent working secretly for the military and nothing will stop you getting accross the desert to the miltary base at the far side where you've some important documents to deliver. Well, nothing apart from all the nasties and a few outlaws that are waiting for you between each of the levels. At the end of one level, you fly over various icons such as money, flags, music notes, revolver and oil symbols. You've some of these to your credit to start with, but choose carefully which you add by flying over them as you'll have to do some trading with outlaws in between levels before you can pass on to the next stage. The outlaws get the best graphics in the same, and one bears a frightening resemblance to the Man Ed, which surprises no-one.
    Beneath each outlaw, his temper, reliability, intelligence and agression levels are indicated. This bit in between levels is called a sub-game, but it's really just some extra fun, and the best bit is blasting, of course, with many monsters requiring more than one shot to see them off. And you also have the option of single fire (fast, but forwards only) or multi-fire mode (any direction by firing and moving your joystick the right way. There's even a magic mode facility, which keeps you away from all harm for a few seconds, but decreases your stamina by 10%. When your stamina's zero it's Game Over time folks. The Fast and the Furious really is one of the fastest action games I've seen on the Spectrum, and as for the excitement of riding a magic carpet, you can't beat it!
    
Many thanks to Jamie Percival for typing up this article

Ratings given by other magazines

6/10      4/10    Crash Review ---

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