Go stunt crazy in the desert with this racing widget

One of my favorite games as a kid was Stunt Car Racer on the Commodore Amiga. It wasn’t the polygon graphics that won me over but the playability that got me addicted.

Crash3D widget doesn’t quite beat that classic game in my biased eyes but it’s still a fun driving game that you can play on your Dashboard to kill a bit of time. Crash3D sees you take control of a stunt car as you race around a desert landscape hitting as many ramps and loop-the-loops as possible in an attempt to get your name on the high score table. The fun thing is, you’re competing against competitors from around the world who can log onto the Crash3D Server and register their high score.

Points are awarded for how much time you spend in the air, how many hoops you jump through and how many loop-the-loops you manage to perform in the time allotted (which is about 10 minutes). Although the splash screen at start-up says you have to use W, A, S and D to control the car, I found the arrow keys worked fine with the spacebar used for turbo boost.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably start by just hitting turbo boost and flying around the desert crashing into rocks but beware because the boost is limited to about 10 seconds of continuous driving before it needs five seconds to reload.

The stunts are fun at first although once you’ve been round the circuit a few times, you soon get bored. It would have been nice to have had a few more scenarios to choose from, or a few more more original stunts. Also, your car is virtually indestructible which makes it a bit too easy, and if it flips over and you get stuck, you can press ‘R’ to reset it.

All in all however, Crash3D is a handy widget for racing fans to waste a few minutes or indulge in their stunt car fantasies.