U is for Up'n Down

Folks familiar with classic arcade games of the car variety where the car is able to jump will usually think of either Bump 'n Jump or Jump Bug.  My favorite of the genre, though, happens to be Up'n Down, which I encountered at a local skating rink growing up.  I always found it to be a challenging but fun game, and I imagine if I had more pocket money at the time I would have spent quite a bit on this little game.

In Up'n Down you drive around a dune buggy which looks somewhat similar to a Volkswagen Beetle to my eye.  You race around trying to run over ten colored flags.  Along the way you have to avoid crashing into enemy cars or squish them by jumping your car on top of them.  You have to be careful though as you must navigate hills which speed up and slow down your car and bridges which have to be jumped over.  You have to make sure to not accidentally jump off the road into the grass or water.

As mentioned, I just found the gameplay on this game fun.  The first level isn't too bad to get through even for a beginner, so you quickly get that sense of accomplishment.  As the levels progress, though, the strategic use of speeding up, slowing down, choosing which fork to take in the road, etc., decries the challenging nature of a seemingly simple game.  The thing about this game, though, is that even when I was dying, it was a cute, entertaining game.

What did you think of Up'n Down, or what was your favorite classic car racing arcade game?