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Big Run is a faultlessly observed sim. Not, unfortunately, of the Paris to Dakar rally which, according to the blurbs on the packaging, it's based on. For one thing it starts a few thousand miles too late in Tunis, and I doubt there are many huge raised ramps resting on top of neat, symmetrical rock towers in the middle of North Africa.

No, what Big Run is a sim of is a motor racing coin-op conversion, and it flawlessly imitates every cliche of the genre. We're not after reality here; who wants to put up with kamikaze camels, blistering heat that bursts your tyres and a windscreen that's constantly gunging up with dust? Nah, what these burn-'em-ups are all about is jamming the joystick forward and weaving at top speed through cars, rocks, barriers and other obstacles.

Big Run really has nothing new to offer. The graphics are serviceable, but over-familiar, with stripey roads endlessly rolling towards you and barriers and rocks appearing from and disappearing to nowhere in the flash of an indicator. The sense of deja vu that sets in by the third or fourth level doesn't purely come from having seen it all before in other driving games, however; apart from the addition of a few mud huts and the occasional river, all the six levels are so similar you can't help thinking. "Hey, haven't I done this road before?"

The control method is of the thumb-numbing ram-the-joystick-forward-for-the-entire-game variety. You change from high to low gear with the fire button - make sure that you're got a comfortable joystick.

Not that you'll be playing it for long. If you're an experienced computer driver, it's not going to take you more than half a day to get through all the levels. OK, you can try and improve on your score with faster times, but I doubt you'll be bothered. This isn't actually a bad game, but most people will get bored with the red and brown landscapes, the same red opponents and the same sound effects pretty quickly.

Extremely basic gameplay and over-familiar graphics make this pretty dull going.