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Infogrames' Driver was one of those games which caused a total uproar when it first arrived on the PlayStation. With huge driving areas that you had nearly absolute freedom to drie around and what can only be described as the most amazing vehicle physics ever seen in a game, it was easy to overlook some slightly dodgy graphics and the odd bug! So the game became an instant hit. Quite how Driver was ever going to make the transition to the small screen of the Game Boy Color and still retain any of its playability... well, it was almost impossible to imagine. But miracle of miracles, Infogrames has managed it!

Driver most closely resembles the reent Take 2 game GTA which - to be honest - was more than a little disappointing. Despite lots of different missions, and all sorts of different vehicles, the main part of the gameplay - the driving - was just a little, well, rubbish.

Thankfully, Driver manages to avoid this. It's difficult to say immediately why this is but as you play through, it becomes apparent that despite the fact that you car is little more than a monochrome rectangle and you're viewing everything as if you were sitting way above the streets in a helicopter (rather than the first and third person views from the PlayStation version) the cars in the game nevertheless handle with incredible realism. This is mainly down to the fact that they have inertia which is apparent when starting, stopping and cornering at speed.

If you haven't played the original Driver then a bit of background is probably in order: the aim of the game is basically to infiltrate a criminal organisation by becoming an expert driver and doing various sordid 'jobs' for them. The premise behind the whole thing is that you're an undercover cop which was basically the publisher's way of skilfully avoiding the controversy that would have been generated by a game that enourages you to drive dangerously and commit crimes.

To begin with, you only have a basic car and access to one city, Miami. You must drive from place to place avoiding the cops and trying not to trash your car. Two bars at the bottom of the screen show your status: the damage meter is fairly self-explanatory and the felony gauge increases as you commit crimes - the higher it is, the more vociferously the cops pursue you! As you complete jobs you get to drive other, faster cars and move to different cities as your status within the criminal organisation grows.

It's fast, it's fun and it blows the wheels off every other Game Boy driving game! If you don't grab yourself a copy of this then you're stark raving mad!

Graphics 80%
Very nice.

Sound 100%
Great pumping tunes.

Playability 100%
Surprisingly addictive.

Lastability 60%
Hard to put down!

Overall 92%
This is what GTA should have been!