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D-biking is a sport for those with nerves of steel, terrific bike control, and the strength to survive being thrown off their machine countless times.

In Kikstart II, the sequel to Kikstart, two riders compete on a horizontally-split screen, each crossing an identical course of awesome obstacles ranging from simple, rough terrain and steep ramps to rows of pounding pistons and incinerating plumes of flame. Springboards can send a biker high into the air, gates and brick walls require steady riding, mud patches that can bog down the best.

So each rider must control his bike with skill, accelerating and braking, doing wheelies and jumping high when required. Only experience can teach you which riding technique is required when.

At every riding session five courses from a possible 24 can be chosen or randomly selected; a target time is given for each course together with a total for all five.

No matter how many times the riders take a tumble, they always remount - no lives are lost. But valuable time speeds on at twice the normal rate.

Using the course designer you can redefine keys, construct a new course or modify an old one, and set up obstacles to provide the most testing of dirt-bike challenges. The new or modified course replaces one of the original rides.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: unbearably slow scrolling of a detailed but colourless background
Sound: silent 48K version, simple 128K tune
Options: definable keys: course designer

'Kikstart II is everything Code Masters's ATV Simulator should have been. The lack of sound is annoying (the Commodore 64 version has an excellent tune) but the rest of the game holds up superbly. It's playable and addictive, with good and surprisingly smooth graphics and little colour clash.'

'Once you've mastered the controls and adjusted your eyes to the colour Kikstart II is quite playable. But the course designer is extremely hard to control, and it's irritating when you can't turn it off and go back to the game, though some good designs can be created. The presentation of Kikstart II is good, with an excellent title screen, and you soon get used to the slow scrolling. Yet with much more exciting racers like ATV Simulator on the market this can only be a second choice.'