Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat

Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat is a 1991 racing game developed and published in arcades by Leland Corporation. It stars American Indy car driver Danny Sullivan, and features the tracks of the CART series of the early 1990s. Home versions of the game were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64.

Gameplay

Indy Heat featured three-player capability for the arcade version, and was similar in gameplay to Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road. Players earned money based on their race finishing positions, which was spent on improving their car. The race season culminated with the Tradewest Speed Bowl, which loosely resembled the Indianapolis 500.

Tracks

There are 14 tracks in the arcade version, all of which are based on actual Indy car circuits. The NES port includes nine of those tracks though all were renamed. Pocono, which is based on Pocono Raceway, has been inexplicably moved to Illinois. Indianapolis has been renamed Tradewest after the publisher of the NES version. The NES Michigan track is not the same as the arcade-exclusive track of the same name.

Phoenix : 8 Laps
Vancouver : 5 Laps
Indianapolis : 8 Laps, 12 Laps on NES and final arcade race
Long Beach : 5 Laps
Detroit : 5 Laps
Pocono : 8 Laps
Cleveland : 5 Laps
East Rutherford/Meadowlands : 5 Laps
Toronto : 5 Laps
Michigan/Brooklyn : 8 Laps
Lexington/Mid Ohio : 5 Laps
Elkhart Lake : 5 Laps
Cook's/Monterey : 5 Laps
Denver : 5 Laps

Ports

The arcade game was later ported by Rare and published by Tradewest for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. Indy Heat was the third NES game to be released that featured an American Indy car driver, the others being Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing and Michael Andretti's World GP. As well as the NES, the game was also ported by The Sales Curve for the Amiga, Atari ST and the Commodore 64 the same year. Due to Danny Sullivan's promotion expiring, the racing game was released for the latter simply as "Indy Heat". A Sega Genesis version was developed but never officially published, though a number of reproduction copies were released.

Reception

British gaming magazine The One reviewed the arcade version of Indy Heat in 1991, calling the game's tracks "very prettily constructed" and praising its gameplay, noting how the player may choose to drive carefully to have minimal pit stops, although going slower, or drive "like a maniac" to go faster, but risking breaking down. The One furthermore praises the player's ability to buy upgrades with the prize money from races in-game. The One expressed that "it's this level of dynamic strategy within and between the races that makes this my game of the month".