Chicago 90

Chicago 90 is an isometric action game by Microids, released in 1989 initially for Atari ST, then for Amiga, DOS, and other platforms.

Sometimes the games with the simplest premise are the ones that catch our attention the most. Please make no mistake, I appreciate the most original adventures, with fresh stories that leave you thinking for weeks, but sometimes a simple formula can be all I'm looking for. And speaking of simple formulas, is there a more classic one than the cat and mouse? Popularized by Pac-man, this must be one of the most used in the world of video games. Now, will it work in a racing game?

Developed and published by Microïds, You can experience the racing adventure created in 1989 on several platforms. It was released for Amstrad, Atari ST, Amiga (which we will focus on), and MS-DOS.

As I anticipated before, the premise is straightforward. The player can choose to be a mobster and escape the city before the cops catch him or vice versa. In my opinion, being a gangster is a bit more fun, but there are interesting things on the other side so that you will decide at the end of the review.

With the idea of the game out of the way, all that's left is choosing our side and starting the adventure. As a gangster, the player can make his car jump and has a map that allows him to see where both the city's exit and the cops are. Likewise, one can also see his car from an aerial camera, and hidden in the interface, another small camera shows what is in front of the car. On the uniformed side, an interesting idea arises. Unlike the single mafia car trying to escape, the police cars are six, with which you can rotate in the best way to capture the criminal.

There is no definitive version of the game that you can see as the best. In this case, the Amiga version is quite slow, which takes away the fluidity of a game that depends a lot on this factor. However, this is not very important if you think of it as more like a strategy game than a racing game. What the Amiga version does achieve is a good sound since, in the rest of the ports, especially the Atari ST one, the car sounds like a broken radiator and is honestly unbearable.

In answer to the question I asked in the introduction: yes, chase games work for racing titles. There is no need to look to more modern entries like Need for Speed or Grand Theft Auto, since Chicago 90 is a classic example that the formula would be a hit. Want to try it on your own? We figured we think about you. You can play the game here, and now, the only thing you have to worry about is choosing your side; good luck!