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The idea for this game is far from new. Versions of it have cropped up in games by both Hewson and Epyx. However, this is the first game of this genre available at a budget price for the Amstrad.

As its name suggests, Riding The Rapids is about canoeing. You guide your boat through gates, hopefully keeping it (a) upright, and (b) going through the gates in the right order and in the right direction. Additional hazards include rapids, whirlpools and sandbanks. Contact with any of these destabilises your craft and can flip it over.

The course is displayed in a vertical window on the left of the screen; this takes up about half of the viewing area. The remainder is split between your current time, a picture of your man paddling the boat and status information such as remaining energy, penalty points and the course record.

The graphics are adequate using mode zero; this is the 16-colour low resolution mode. Colour has to be used well if the resolution reduction of this mode isn't gong to be noticed. Luckily the graphics are quite convincing if a little fat at times.

The big plus of this game is its ability to re-design the river and save your designs - an easy editing section allows you to re-design the four existing tracks or to design a new one. The instructions are explicit and actual editing very easy. All you have to do is move a cursor along the river and place items at the cursor position selected from a graphical menu displayed in the 'time' area of the screen. The status area of the screen gives you a bird's eye view of the whole river.

With this editing addition, the game becomes very good value. The four rivers can easily be navigated in a couple of evenings. However, whether the time spent re-designing them will actually keep up your interest in the game is another matter. It all depends on how much you like canoeing, I suppose.