The future. The Solar System colonised, cities cover the ocean beds, air-borne cars, wall-sized TV's, robot servants. Wars and conflict have been resigned to museum pieces and play no part in the corporate state. It's just like an Usborne book of the future. Bliss!

To get their kicks, contestants enter Virtual Reality TV shows to live out their wildest fantasies. Top of the ratings league is Mega Race. A driver's dream, you can wipe the boy racer and road hog scum from the tarmac with a 20 millimetre laser-sighted cannon and armour-piercing bullets. Set over 14 tracks, there's plenty of thrills and spills for the TV audience.

To add excitement to the proceedings, bonuses have been left on the tracks. From speed up, to bonus points, to ammo on the later tracks, beware as they all have identical icons placed to have the reverse effect.

In the world of TV, it's audience figures that count. Bearing this in mind, if you don't make the ratings forget sympathy when you fail. On the other hand, if you drive a good race, but just miss out on the last lap, a second chance track is made available.

Megarace is compered by the effusive Lance Boil, who offers encouragement and commiserations in his own shiny-suited way. The frequent intermissions are created from digitised footage of an actor playing the role.

This impresses in all the wrong pplaces. Yes, the video is some of the best rendered on the Mega-CD. Yes, presentation is slick. Yes, the 3D effect is smooth. No, the actual game isn't any good.

All that is required is the destruction of a few trundling opponents. It's not a real race game at all, and suffers from wafer-thin gameplay elements to boot.

Yet again, the presentation overwhelms the gameplay. The intro is stunning and the Lance Ball FMV is quite an achievement for the Mega CD. But the gameplay is frustrating and with little point to it. Okay, so the idea of meging the action with FMV backdrops is novel and creditworthy, but not if the game isn't up to much.

The collision detection is dreadful - some of the obstacles being impossible to avoid - and CPU opponents are identical. All of this is not to mention the downright awful Lance Boil. Steer clear of this offering.

Graphics 75%
Stunning FMV intro and background design, but dreadful car

Sound 70%
Nothing special in the music and FX departments.

Playability 61%
Repetitive and frustrating with slack collision detection.

Lastability 52%
The fourteen tracks are quite a handful, if you can be bothered.

Value For Money 60%
A bit much for a load of presentation sequences and little gameplay.

Overall 55%
Once again, all presentation and backdrops with no attention to the essential gameplay factor.