ANOTHER racing game which looks fantastic on the cover but, your instincts tell you, might not live up to your expectations.

As it was made by the same people who entertained me with Street Fighter, these innovators would surely still be able to produce a high quality game years later.

I was not disappointed at the start as it seemed a lot of thought had gone into setting out the opening menu, which consists of three options, Garage, Arcade and VJ & Theatre.

The Garage option allows you to tune up cars to your own specifications, including body styling, which I loved.

It is a lot more enjoyable racing a car that you have designed to your own specifications and more satisfying when you out-accelerate an opponent.

Arcade had the usual options of single race, vs and time trial, which are self-explanatory and offer quite a wide range of racing entertainment.

VJ and Theatre was a feature I had not seen before, which allows you to edit replays of your racing to make impressive films to show your friends.

The graphics are strange and I could not really make my mind up about them. They are extremely crisp, as with most PS2 games, the cars are very detailed and there has been a lot of care taken in small details such as the lights and air intakes, but the anime style gives them a cartoon appearance.

The cars sound typically Japanese, which means youre not sure whether you have got an engine under the bonnet or a sewing machine.

No emphasis has been given to the sound of screeching tyres or bubbling exhaust and consequently there is no real feeling of speed, despite the swishes of air that come off your spoiler at high speeds.

The controls are simple and very easy to get to grips with and I found it increasingly hard to make the car power slide or even lock the wheels.

The only time I came off the track was when I was trying to take a hairpin at 180mph. I know that the game is not meant to be realistic but that just takes the fun out of racing.

The game is well thought out and has had a lot of work done on the production of loads of different tracks and cars.

However, for me racing games are about realism and I want red-blooded male cars that wreak havoc on ordinary road users and make tremendous noise when you touch the throttle. Sadly the game omits this.

Graphics 3/5

Sound 2/5

Game play 2/5

Game span 4/5

Overall 2.5/5

James Tramontano