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Vroom! Vroom! The excitement is building as the drivers line up for the start of the race. Championship Run puts you in the driving seat of a powerful Formula One racing car, ready to take on the worlds number one pro drivers in a jostling battle to take Pole Position.

Colourful, stunning graphics and realistic sound adds to the excitement as you take to the well-detailed tracks to burn some rubber. But, unfortunately, that's where the excitement stops, or at least, slows down. All the fun at the beginning only adds to the disappointment as you head towards a road of disaster.

Because you're a beginner, you have to start right at the back of the grid which looks like an M1 traffic jam with all the cars (around 90!) squeezed into two lanes. Starting the race is pretty easy and usually gets off to a good start, but once a tiny mistake is made or your car slows down a bit, you've had it. The other cars are upon you straight away, bashing into you and pushing you this way and that.

Then, what makes this game difficult and frustrating us the amount of time which it takes the car to regain speed. Whenever you hit a post or are bumped in any way by another vehicle, it has a mini explosion and grinds to a halt. Whenever a bend is taken too late or the car skids along the sidelines, the result is much the same. Put the car back down into first gear, accelerate, slowly gather speed, then change the gears up again. Meanwhile, another car usually sneaks up behind you, nips your bumper, and it's back to square one again.

This process is repeated three or four times before the car actually gets going again. Usually, by the time you've completed one lap, the car is a mobile inferno. But help is at hand, or is it. We come now to the pit stop. A Championship Run pit stop consists of a few signs dotted along the middle of the road, separating the two lanes. Enter the pit stop and your car goes all fuzzy (somewhat similar to the "Beam me up, Scotty" transporter from Star Trek), wait a few seconds and it's restored, brand new. One small problem though, other vehicles are able to speed through your pit stop too, give you a bump, and zoom off into the distance, leaving you once again in a ball of flames. Championship Run looks cool, sounds cool, but is unfortunately a bit of a wash out.

Label: Zeppelin Memory: 48K/128K Price: £3.99 Tape Reviewer: Tony Naqvi

This is a really good looking game that unfortunately suffers from a sad lack of gameplay. Get it only if you like being frustrated.