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In 1985, Irish race ace Joey Dunlop first took delivery of a red, white and blue dream machine that was going to carry him to a series of successes in motorcycle racing's top category and, ultimately, give him the power he needed to take the world championship crown.

That machine was Honda's near legendary RVF 750 - and unless you're got the necessary £9.500 to take to the road on the production version, Microstyle's simulation is probably the only way that you'll come close to emulating Dunlop's achievements.

Before you strap on your leathers though, take time to check your pit crew's clipboard. This is basically the options menu, allowing the prospective rubber burner to set the race length, choose to practise a course, change the speedo from kilometers to miles per hour and countless other fine-tuning tasks.

And so to the race...

Kitted out in a fetching red romper suit, the player takes to the grid with eight other riders... each revving his engine to an ear-splitting pitch.

The lights change from red to green... and they're off, jostling for position at the first bend - but are you with them? Not if you over-revved your engine you're not! The crux of the matter here is that RVF Honda leans heavily towards the simulation end of the market, and as such the bike behaves more or less identically to the real thing. Therefore, if you build up more than 8,000 revs before taking off, you'll probably end up pulling a wheelie and losing valuable seconds.

This attention to detail prevails throughout, with most of the courses based on real-life circuits and the bike responding accurately to the conditions thrown up by them. For example, in most games of this type it's possible to take a bend at full whack and get away with it - not here though! RVF Honda was designed with the help of the pros, so every detail (right down to which gear to negotiate any given corner in) is as accurate as possible.

And don't it feel good!

Gameplay (or simulated action - whichever you prefer) as complex as this takes quite a bit of getting used to, but when you eventually do, the results are all the more rewarding. You really feel that you've achieved something if you end up 'in the points' at the end of a race - and you can give yourself a hearty pat on the back if you manage to complete a race without losing contact with your saddle.

Different spills result in appropriate tumbles - hit a tree and you'll somersault wildly, while skidding on oil will produce a rather less exciting result - but whatever happens, your machine won't emerge unscathed.

An initial fall usually results in a loss of either the speedometre or the rev counter (the latter is more serious, as the rev counter is useful for choosing when to select a new gear), while further falls can lose gears and even write the machine off.

Making it to the very top may prove a long and lonely struggle (but not that lonely if you use the Datalink option to race against another player), but Microstyle's debut has enough depth to keep the aspiring champion interested all the way - and at least you won't end up packing as much metal as Barry Sheene.

A twisting, turning, screaming, gut-wrenching, metal-melting and incredibly satisfying belt around the tarmac. And the most exciting motorcycle racing game yet into the bargain!