| Credits | |
| Published: |
1992, Gremlin Graphics
 |
| Developer: |   |
| Design: | Peter Liggett |
| Coder: | Shaun Southern |
| Graphics: | Andrew Morris |
| Musician: | Patrick Phelan |
| Information | |
| Hardware: | OCS, ECS |
| Disks: | 2 |
| Code Language: | ASM 68k |
| License: | Commercial |
| Language: | English |
| Players: | 1 or 2, Simultaneous |
| Relationship: |  Sequel to Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 |
| Categorization | |
| Genre: | Racing |
| Subgenre: | Cars |
| Tags: | behind, car, checkpoint, competitive, fuel, generator, laps, racing, splitscreen, timelimit |
| Magazine Reviews | |
|
Added by Kim Lemon on Jul 14, 2004. Viewed 72522 times.
|
|
No reviews yet! Be the first one to review it.
Save to My Favourites
Save to My OriginalsI have completed this game 
ExoticA
Get Amiga Forever for a great Amiga emulation experience and licensed Kickstart ROMs.
Internet Archive Various files
Planet Emulation ADF files
Turran FTP Pre-installed WHDLoad
WHDLoad
Hall of Light
OpenRetro
SPS
YouTube
Wikipedia
UVL
While on one hand this is a very decent racer it feels a little too convoluted compared to its predecessors which were much more focused. The RECS system for creating your own tracks is too limited and I'm almost sure that system was used to create the actual tracks for the main game. I say this because many are rather bland and lack character. In other words they seemed to lack the human touch. Lotus 3 is still a good game but despite all of its bells and whistles, a lesser game than the previous two.
View all comments (91)
Sorry to contradict with the majority view, but I hated this then, and still do. It’s excruciatingly slow on an A500 and the standard version doesn’t work on standard A1200s – this can be worked around nowadays, but the game still has multiple issues. If this was the only Lotus game, I'd overlook some of them, but for me the first two both trounce this.
It's packed with features (though the 4-player linkup is gone, even though this requires 1Meg unlike the first two), but in a completely haphazard way. The new course styles are bland - Future is tacky, Wind too exaggerated and gimmicky for an otherwise realistic game, and Mountains is even more horrendously slow than the others.
It's unbalanced too - the individual tracks don't get harder as you play through them, you spend far too much time either racing over the same laps with nothing more to gain, or driving through not-going-to-get-any-harder tracks with no one else to pass, and no backmarkers to deal with. RECS is very limited compared to what's in Jaguar as well. The introduction in the manual has a real "sorry, but they made us do it" feel, as if they didn't really believe in the game, in contrast to the gushing enthusiasm in the same section in Lotus 2's manual.
View all comments (183)
A superb way to end the series, with many options and different modes of play.
View all comments (123)
Best Racing game for Amiga!
View all comments (15)
Forget Lotus, try this: [www]
View all comments (115)
One of the best racing games on Amiga but not flawless. The amount of data squeezed into 2 disks is enormous. 13 different types of scenery, each consisting of its unique features, sounds and loading tunes plus three cars to select from and RECS - amazing feature to create your own tracks making it virtually infinite number of possible tracks to race on. Add to this two modes of play: Cup and Time so basically having two previous parts of the trilogy in one game. Flaws - stattering animation in overloaded levels and during the two-player mode makes the game a little less fluent than previous ones thus some people might consider the game as worse. Nevertheless, apart from that it is great game.
View all comments (899)
The best of the three games. Everyone that think the prequels are better is just nostalgic. Yes it is less smoother but in return, there are lot of new sceneries, musics, options and play modes. There are also much more objects on screen, filling the emptiness of the previous games. The difficulty curve is as good as the one of Lotus 1 and it takes part of all the Lotus 2 improvements. It's biggest defect is once again its AI, a recurring defect in this series. This last Lotus game is clearly more ambitious than its prequels and it is now difficult to forgive such an error. Just read the MIK UK comment to understand, he well sums up the problem. Nevertheless, a great racing game from the early 90's, the best of the three Lotus games ! You want it smoother ? Just play it with an overclocked 68000, a 68020 or better, or why not on CD32 throught the Lotus Trilogy !
View all comments (144)
Other than the Mountian stage the frame rate was fine and you only need to look at the excellent Super Hang-on to see that Lotus 3 for the most part is still smoother than that!
The single most thing that let this game down for me was the fact they used the 19 Championship AI cars for Timed mode. The A to B course would have you racing on empty roads 99% of the time making it feel more like Time Attack. All too often you'd past most of the field straight away and no matter how hard and fast you raced the AI would suddenly over take you from no where making it almost impossible to catch them until the last stage of the course when they would all slow down. I really missed the random traffic Lotus 2 had that you would pass every 5-10 seconds or so which was what Timed mode was all about.
I still play it a lot though regardless as there is nothing better than making your own courses up to see what you get. Sometimes you can get some really cool ones that feel as if they were hand made by a human and then I change only the location to see what else I get from that one code as it were.
If you like the Lotus Series and take this one for what there is then there is some fun to be hand making new courses any way, something Lotus 2 can't do no matter how many times you play it.
BTW. I also love the MegaDrive version which goes by the name of Lotus 2, once you get used to it graphically it's like a Lotus 3.1 with the amount of tweaks and changes it had...
View all comments (20)
This was one of my first games on Amiga 500 Far better music than in prequels
After this game I played Lotus 2/Lotus but it didn't captivated me for long. However, Lotus 1 was boring
Lotus 3 is one of the best racers in gaming
I give it almost perfect 9 because of sloppy framerate as it's only flaw.
View all comments (8)
Lotus 3, as others have already mentionned below, was a letdown of sorts. Its major flaw being the framerate which was not as smooth as its two predecessors.
View all comments (119)
This didn't manage to captivate me as much as the first two, though I can't possibly phantom why since there's nothing really wrong with it... Maybe it was the "trying to be all at once" syndrome it had, or maybe the two disks that necessarily meant disk swapping, or maybe the Lotus franchise had already lost its hip factor by then, I honestly don't know. All I know is that I didn't play this one nearly as much as the other two.
View all comments (211)
It's a long time since I played this, but I do remember feeling let down in some way I couldn't exactly put my finger on.
In general there are more features, but the core gameplay and graphics haven't improved- if anything they're weaker. A lot of the stages (and graphics) are identical to those in Lotus 2. Those which are actually new aren't that impressive; mountain road wasn't as cool as I'd hoped and the "future zone" was gimmicky and out-of-place.
Maybe the bits I didn't like are those that came from Lotus 1 (I never played that one, but I hear that Lotus III basically combines the features of #1 and #2). But I feel that Lotus III also lacks the focus and sense of progression that Lotus 2's linear level choice gave. The course designer isn't as good as it sounds either, as IIRC it's restricted to choosing parameters, not designing the actual track yourself.
Lotus III offers more features than 2, and maybe it's a victim of me expecting it to impress me as much as 2 did originally. It's probably still better than the overhyped Jaguar XJ220... But I found it a bit boring to be honest.
View all comments (10)
Seen from the point of view of an Amiga 500, Lotus 3 is a little choppy. But using a newer Amiga or a correctly configured WinUAE, this game becomes as smooth as Lotus 1 - with the added options of Lotus 2 and a few additional options.
Also included are Lotus-typical great graphic, an awesome soundtrack (even though I still think the first game's music was the best) and excellent gameplay.
The best of the series - if your computer can handle it.
View all comments (51)
Lotus III looks exactly like its immediate predecessor (to the point of actually recycling graphics), but, in contrast to that game's smoothness and refinement, it's inexplicably choppy. As a whole, it's basically the other two games in the trilogy combined into a grand finale of sorts, but, given that its choppiness hurts playability, and that it doesn't add much new material (what it does add being largely superfluous), there's no reason to play it instead of the previous games.
An admirable effort in concept, but spoiled by its lackluster execution.
View all comments (141)
I like this game, its fun and thats what games should be.
I think its on a par with Lotus 2.
8/10
View all comments (126)
In the future... (when this game is set judging by the sc fi type back grounds) everyones still driving a 1992 lotus??
Games not bad, but it suffered from Shadow of the Beast III syndrome. Too little to late and missing somthing that its predecessors had.
Never liked the awful checkered roads.
Also the framerate was piss poor.
View all comments (99)
I own Lotus 1, 2 and 3 plus the trilogy box set for both Amiga and Atari STE and having read in these comments that this is the best of the series....well i disagree. To me the Lotus games rank in the order they were released, with Lotus 1 streets ahead in terms on speed, longevity, music and playability. Never got into recs, but this game just did not have the speed and just lacked something for me. On its own, still a good game and superior to Jaguar XJ220, but nowhere near as good as Lotus 1 and 2 or even Crazy Cars III in my opinion, but on the whole, a very good game!!!
View all comments (9)
Mixed feelings about this game, and its a mixed game! It combines both elements of both 1 and 2 with lapped racing and fuel, and arcade style with a track maker to boot! Its not bad, and in it own right its an awesome game, just it tries to be both lotus 1 and 2, which i love for different reasons, and i do like this a lot, just not as much as its predecessors. Still a very decent racer though and a good addition to the trio!
View all comments (178)
I still prefer Lotus I but the third part is better than the second one. E.g. Full screen.
View all comments (28)
I really liked this game when I got it, absolutely superb (but not as good as Lotus II) - I still revisit it on a regular basis.
However, I took john4p's advise - and tried it under WinUAE with the JIT turned on and OMFG
8/10 - get it now!
View all comments (36)
This was the best of the series for me. It had everything. The fact that you could generate your own tracks just by typing in garbage (or words) was outstanding and dramatically increased the replay value. I think I'll have to grab my trusty Comp Pro USB joystick and hit this one up again!
View all comments (3)
I wasn't as big a fan of racing games as my dad and brother, but I really enjoyed the Lotus series nonetheless and this one was certainly my favourite. Good graphics and really awesome music - heh, the Zool theme tune even made it's way into this game!
View all comments (185)
I totally agree with Graham. I spent a lot of time playing with my friends and family on split screen.
View all comments (13)
It might not be everyone's cup of tea but for me this is the best game of the Lotus series. It takes all the good points of Lotus 2 and corrects the majority of the bad bits by adding features from Lotus 1, and throwing in tons of tracks and a bizarre course generator. The music, graphics and general presentation are excellent and the game is as accessible, playable and addictive as you'd expect. The only downside for me would be it being slightly slower than the other games (and adding the awful mountain levels) but overall it's fantastic.
View all comments (101)
Very nice track generator, again awesome music, good gameplay. Still graphicswise a tad inferior to Lotus 2.
And the eight tracks in Lotus 2 are far better designed (gameplaywise) than Lotus III's billions of tracks...
Due to its sheer quantity it's still as good.
9/10
View all comments (31)
Great gameplay. Superb music. I still play it.
View all comments (1)
I didn't play previous parts, but i spent countless hours playing this game with my sister
View all comments (56)
Not as good and playable as Lotus II in despite of the level editor and the cars you can choose. The music tracks are pretty good, as the titlescreen at the very beginning.. That made me jump off my chair the first time I saw it
View all comments (2)
Sceneries and cars do not scroll so smoothly anymore. What the fuck? Why is that? They decided to make game engine slower? Fools! Forget this one and play Lotus II.
View all comments (250)
I'll start with the one thing that disappointed me a little, and it's the tracks themselves. In Lotus 2 there was clearly a progression on the tracks, in which curves, hills, obstacles, and scenery elements were not put randomly. Unfortunately in Lotus 3 that "progression" is gone and all the elements are put randomly on the tracks and therefore they are less fun (especially when you drive laps).
Other than that this racer is absolutely excellent. Of course the 8 sceneries from Lotus 2 are back, but there are also 5 new ones. I liked the semi-course editor in which you could generate tracks (but not exactly choose everything - you can only select a percentage for curves, hills, sharpness etc. - hence the "semi-") and make custom levels. I also appreciate that you can race either against the clock or other drivers so everyone is satisfied.
View all comments (29)
This game is just crazy cool! The best racer on the amiga
View all comments (61)
Fast, smooth and playable. Not as good as "Lotus II" but still a very good game and a fitting end to the Amiga's greatest racing series.
View all comments (145)
10/10 for the titlescreen.
View all comments (142)
I ever liked this game on PC; can I downlaod it anywhere? Am I too stoooopid to find the D/L button?
View all comments (1)
Better than lotus 2 at least, very smooth scrolling car racer (except from the mountain stage). Gets kinda boring, the car feels more like indestructable cement-slab producing an engine sound that sounds more like a vacuum cleaner than a car!
View all comments (95)
Not the best Lotus (I still prefer Lotus I) but a good game by the way...
View all comments (192)
Fantastic!!! Great graphics and music and an amazing racing experience. The best one of the Lotus Trilogy. In some aspects, Lotus I is better, but overall, Lotus III rules.
View all comments (48)
I didn't think that this particular Lotus game in the series was strong, it was weak but couldve been better. Its OK though
View all comments (522)
Liked it (well done maff for the o.t.t. Explanation)
View all comments (61)
A completely pointless and redundant sequel, which recycles the first two games yet remains inferior to both. One suspects that Morris and Southern were under pressure to deliver another sequel, so they dredged through the development files from the first two games and cobbled together whatever was left over. That would explain the 'course designer' - really a random level generator, which creates the sort of characterless, unmemorable roads you'd expect. The 'proper' levels aren't up to par either, lacking both the competitive spirit of the first game and distinct character of the second. Apart from the 'Test Drive' style cliffside levels (which are great), there's nothing here which wasn't done much better in the prequels... And the less said about the future levels the better.
The game itself is still playable... It recycles the same graphics engine (again!) from the first two games, and so plays pretty much the same. But why would you play this when the first two are the same, only better?
6/10.
View all comments (114)
Good racer but something is missing in this sequel. I guess it's beacuse the tracks more or less all look similar to each other with only minor changes between them (the fog course is ripped directly from the previous games !) and with unispiring backgrounds too.
Speed and smooth controls are there (as usual for the Lotus series) but the game is only average in comparison with the fantastic Lotus second episode (the best one) and with Jaguar XJ 220 too.
View all comments (100)
Lotus III is even much better than the first and the second Lotus game, you can design the course simply just typing letters on the code. Superb!!!
View all comments (116)
All three Lotus games are equally great -- all with their own little highs and lows. And I really enjoyed the "future" tracks (and those with the heavy roadworks
View all comments (810)
One player mode is jerky as well Kriko. The randomly-generated tracks all feel the same, and whoever thought of the 'future' track should be shot, especially as the effect of the speedup pads and laser bolts is clearly faked. The Megadrive version (Lotus 2 RECS) is okay, but this is the black sheep of the Lotus lineage.
View all comments (41)
Somehow looks bleaker and sounds thinner compared to its predecessors. Nothing really new, and 2 player mode is jerky. Course generator isn't fun to use. It's an OK racer, but Lotus 1 & 2 really cover all your Lotus needs.
View all comments (201)
Something went really wrong with the sequel to great Lotus 2. Suddenly the smooth road routine was jumpy and accurate playability suffered from it. Also Patrick Phelan who replaced Barry Leitch as the musician couldn't come up with nowhere near as good tunes.
View all comments (166)
Actually Lotus 3 HAS got a level editor. Though Lotus 2 is my fave racing game on Amiga followed by Jag XJ220
View all comments (50)
Come on, Guys! Core's Jaguar XJ220 kicks the crap out of the Lotus games! Jaguar has a level editor, the Lotus games don't. This is by far the worst in the series. The first one was at least playable, but this isn't. C-R-A-P!!!
View all comments (52)
A lot of features but not as good as Lotus 1 and Lotus 2.
View all comments (232)
One word: crap
View all comments (800)
I would say this was an improvement over Lotus 2, but Lotus 1 was the best out of the three. Some of the tracks are odd ideas, but here you had 3 cars to choose from unlike 2 from Lotus 2, The new green car, wasn't anything exciting though, probably the slowest Lotus out of the three.
View all comments (62)
Disappointing follow on from Lotus 2.
View all comments (97)
Rocked!
Lotus 2 had a better feeling, but number three features music by Patrick Phelan *during* the game! Although I never understood why you had to choose between music and fx while you could enjoy both in Lotus1...?
Tasty!
View all comments (68)