Scorcher

Scorcher is a futuristic racing video game by Danish developer Zyrinx, released in 1996 for the PC and in 1997 for the Sega Saturn. Originally announced under the name "Vertigo", the game focuses on special motorcycles that reach up to 450 km/h racing through dangerous tracks in a dystopian year 2021. Scorcher was one of the most graphically advanced Sega Saturn games of its time, enough so that Sega shipped an unfinished version of the game to third-party developers as a graphics demo for the Saturn. Reception Though the Saturn version of Scorcher was hyped in the press during its development, the completed game underwhelmed most critics upon release. Reviews typically commented that despite its prolonged development cycle, Scorchers graphics were still cutting edge, but that the gameplay design is flawed and overall mediocre. Lee Nutter of Sega Saturn Magazine, for example, called it "A graphically excellent racing title where the gameplay appears to have been more of an afterthought than an integral part of the game.", and Next Generation summarized that "Scorcher is a good game, with many things going for it, but Scavenger's preoccupation with making it look cool rather than play great make it a sad epitaph for the once-promising company."