Dakar '08

The 2008 adventure may have been cancelled at the last minute due to terrorism concerns, but when it comes to in-the-pocket off-roading, the race is most certainty still on when it comes to the Dakar Rally.

Indeed, this is a game that doesn't worry too much about realism when it comes to vehicle verisimilitude either.

Despite being based on the most famous and fearsome off-road endurance race, which sees competitors crossing miles of sand dunes, desert scrubland and rocky mountains, it contains some unashamedly arcade elements, in which picking power-ups and jumping over ramps are as important knowing your hard-left from your soft-right.

Essentially then, Dakar '08 offers everything you'd want from a decent mobile racing game. Realised in characteristic desert shades, it's huge, intense, accessible, challenging and filled with ramps, nitrous bonuses and over the top crashes

A simple and effective control system means you can start to charge through the Championship mode without delay. Long sweeping skids and daring weaves between the countless objects that litter the tracks quickly become second nature.

As well as a standard boost, there are hidden items scattered throughout the gameworld, and a jump pick-up that allows you to trigger huge leaps into the air, defy reality and enjoy some hugely exciting racing. Best of all though, the more you play, the more the arcadey initial impressions are stripped away to reveal that under the bonnet of this excellent pick-up-and-play racer lies a demanding hardcore title.

For the ordinary player, reaching the split target times to make progress takes little effort, but to break the set records that accompany each stage will take some superhuman skill, meaning there's a huge amount of replay value for those who want to master the perfect racing line for each of the vast array of gravelly raceways.

So as mobile phone games go, Dakar '08 is slick, comprehensive and well produced. It's also a testament to the quality of the sound that when you're forced to play in silence - by the presence of members of the public for example - you miss the audio hugely.

There are, of course, niggles. At first, the system for displaying records and personal bests is rather counterintuitive, and there are some glaring errors in the text that link the action, but to site these as reasons not to buy the game would be highly unreasonable.

Equally, while there's little here that's wholly original, an example of a well produced mobile racer that gets everything right, this is superb. At its limits, the game is also one of the more difficult examples of the genre, but with far too many undemanding driving games released, Dakar '08 makes for a breath of fresh, if dusty, air.