Speed Racer

The game's title does a pretty good job of explaining this one. It's speedy, and it's a racer. Well, I'll give it the racer bit anyway - this is indeed a racing game in which you compete on seven different tracks against three other cars.

The speed bit is a bit more ambiguous. Technically you travel quickly in the game - the speedometer says 270 km/h. But it doesn't exactly shift along like Road Runner on an airport travelator.

While it's not exactly sluggish, this futuristic racer feels at times more like a pootle to the shops than a breakneck race, albeit to shop located on a high street which has had its speed bumps replaced with speed strips and which occasionally makes people drive upside-down.

Importantly though, the slightly disappointing sense of speed doesn't ruin Speed Racer. Because control of your futuristic cars is very good it's not something you dwell on. Not when there's so much more to think about - such as cornering properly, overtaking opponents and using nitro at just the right time. Do all of that right and you're not only more likely to finish in pole position, but you'll also watch your rating grow as you drive.

According to the game's instructions, your rating is increased by pulling off 'Car-Fu' Which might sound like a tropical disease, but it actually encompasses sliding, jumping, nice control and overtaking. Do those things during a race and your overall skill rating increases.

Alongside Car-Fu, Speed Racer introduces another interesting little detail, which is cars that can jump. At certain times, an icon at the top of the screen lights up indicating you can press '5' to use 'jump jacks'. To be honest, the advantage of doing them is minimal, but it looks good nonetheless.

In fact, a lot of tactics aren't strictly necessary in Speed Racer - and that's because it's fairly easy to at least come second in a race without trying too hard, which is enough to get you through to the next race. Most regular racing game players will probably want to skip the Easy and Medium difficulty settings and head straight to Hard.

There are a couple of other modes of play which are tougher though - and those are Survival and Chasing. Chasing is the best of the two, giving you an open track and one other car which you need to stay ahead of. If it overtakes you, you have ten seconds - as counted down to the millisecond on the screen - to get back in first place or the game is over.

Survival, meanwhile, is a lap race in which the last placed car on each lap is knocked out.

Despite this variety of play modes, Speed Racer doesn't actually offer much longevity. Once you've seen all the tracks - which happens quickly - a lot of its appeal is lost, because races just aren't hard-fought enough in Story mode for you to want to keep replaying them. On the plus side, those tracks are spectacular to race on - often taking you on a ride upside down and jumping over vast chasms.

As a racer in the image of console classic F-Zero, it has all the style you want. Twisty, winding tracks, nitro boosts, speed strips and lot of jostling with other racers to get ahead. It just lacks a little in content and longevity. By all means give it a test drive, but don't expect to go for miles.