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BMX Simulator has just about everything that an armchair biker could possibly want - seven horribly difficult courses, a two-player mode, an action replay facility, and some stirring, dramatic music. All that's missing is a dollop of real mud.

The courses are viewed from above, picked out in suitable shades of dirty brown, with effective use of shadows giving a 3D feel to the chicanes and track-side decorations. All the obstacles you'd expect to find in a real championship are featured, including ramps, bumps, water-holes and rough ground. There are burms, too, whatever they are. They sound to me like a bit of Clouseau-speak.

Each course has three laps, and must be completed within fifty seconds if you're to qualify for the next round, which will be even more difficult. You can choose to play either against the computer or a friend, but the computer of course never makes mistakes, which can get a sight discouraging after a while.

Three blasts of the klaxon give you the warning to get pedals ready, and at the sound of the whistle you're off, pedalling frantically (fire button down) and turning to left and right as necessary. Controlling the bike is decidedly tricky, and one wrong move sends your bike into the nearest hay-bale, flag pole or pond whilst your rider is sent spinning through the air to wind up buried in the hot dog tent. Getting remounted is time-consuming, not least because, inexplicably and irritatingly, you're always facing the wrong direction. Equally annoying are collisions with the other rider - how come it's always you who ends up eating dirt?

While you're busy crawling out of the debris, your opponent is pedalling like the clappers (and that's exactly what the accompanying sound effects resemble) and is already on his third lap. When he finishes, he thoughtfully leaves his vehicle standing right in the middle of the track, an obstacle that your suicidal rider finds just too good to miss. Crash!

After the humiliation of the race, you can suffer further embarrassment by pressing the replay button and watching the whole sorry thing all over again. There's even a slow motion replay option, which is fun if you want to see your biker on one of this many airborne trips plummeting gracefully to earth. This is a neat programming trick, though I can't really see the point of replaying your disastrous performance time and time again.

There are many BMX games on the market, and I have no doubt that this is one of the best. For its price it packs a lot in, but it's likely to appeal only to those people who are instantly sent into ecstasy at the mere utterance of the magic initials BMX.