Scorcher Download (1996 Sports Game)

There are some games that are challenging, and then there are some game that are simply too hard for humans to play. Unfortunately, the racing game, Scorcher, falls into the latter category. Blazing speeds and loose controls make this post-apocalyptic bike race close to unmanageable. There is too much going on to stay on the track. That's a shame, because Scorcher looks like it has potential.

The graphics in Scorcher are amazing. The scenery, the bikes, and the bikers are all beautifully rendered. The dark mix of greens, grays, and blacks really puts you in the mood for some postmodern thrashing. The visual presentation of Scorcher's world is really done well.

Scorcher's sound is also decent. It's a mix of futuristic bike effects accompanied by ambient techno music. There is no volume control, however, and the default level is fairly low. Even if you crank your sound card's volume to the max, the music is barely audible during game play. Still, you can choose from among six songs to accompany your game, and that is more of a choice than most games give.

Game play in Scorcher is horrendous. There is far too little control over the bike. The game moves so quickly that turns are nearly impossible to make.

There are too many traps and pitfalls in Scorcher. Just when you get the hang of things, your bike meanders into a ditch and you are stuck. Scorcher offers two levels: Normal and Hard. Normal can be frustrating enough though so hard probably isn't necessary.

The idea behind Scorcher is worthy even if the game is not. Racing is cool, especially when you can bump into other racers. There is a line drawn in the video game sand where a game ceases to be challenging and begins to be way too hard. Scorcher buzzed past that line in a hurry.

Finally, although the game claims to offer joystick support, it would not respond to my controller. Being forced to use keyboard controls might be part of Scorcher's difficulty.

Overall, this game has a good concept and a stellar design. Unfortunately, it's no fun to play.

Graphics: Very good. Very dark.

Sound: Ambient techno and engine sounds.

Enjoyment: Too, too, too hard!

Replay Value: Frustration keeps you away.

Scorcher is a futuristic racing game by Scavenger. In dark post-war-looking decors, you race against a couple of opponents driving in a spherical racer. You can pick up special triangles to gain speed powerups.

The graphics support resolutions up to 640x480.

Scorcher is an innovative racer that combines elements of WipeOut and Marble Madness with mixed results. Although the game has many outstanding 3D race courses that are very imaginative and fun to drive on, it doesn't offer enough features to maintain interest after you have tried every course.

The game's storyline is virtually nonexistent, so it suffices to say that you drive "Scorcher," a futuristic speed bike, competing with others on various courses. You can use turbo-boost to accelerate and jump, but other than that the bikes don't handle much differently from 20th century bikes.

All of the game's six tracks are very well-designed, and are a lot of fun to navigate through. The problem is, there is little else to keep you playing after you have played all of them. The game has no multiplayer modes or level designer. It doesn't even have weapons to spice things up. So you'll enjoy the game for as long as it takes to finish the tracks and getting used to the initial challenge of controlling a futuristic bike. After that, you'll probably go back to the tracks in WipeOut. Scorcher is fun for a while - too bad it's only for a short while. If you liked Megarace, you'll probably enjoy this old game for as long as it will last, though.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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