Car games. You gotta invent something pretty original to make yours stand out amongst the high-end competition. It's no good being a shiny Porsche if your racing environment resembles Luton town centre on a wintry afternoon. Eidos's twist is to eschew fast-paced street fun for mental pile-ups. Welcome to the stock car-influenced world of Crash 'N Burn.

Despite its street racing pretensions, the game plays a lot like a simplistic kart racer, with a large scoop of Destruction Derby served up as a side dish. You select your vehicle, ram down the accelerator and weave your way across a multitude of short city tracks. Some circuits are all about winding bends, others are about tricky bumps and obstacles. The most chaotic - Kamikaze showdowns (both team and single) - feature two sets of cars burning rubber in opposite directions, cranking out an experience similar to speeding down the M1 on the wrong side.

With the emphasis on danger, it is inevitable that the game's high point comes courtesy of the smashed debris. As the tension mounts and the number of laps increases per championship, you'll find your reflexes tested by spilt oil, burnt-out metal and raging fires. Survival becomes a big enough test in its own right and, while bonuses are awarded for wasting cars (achieved by smashing into them repeatedly), such an underhand tactic is unwise.

Sadly, on the other side of the lane, the demolition aspect is marred by erratic race design. Hug the outside track in many Kamikaze races and you can avoid the oncoming traffic with reasonable effort. More significantly, any obstacle-inclined races end up with the vast majority of its sixteen competitors being transformed into smouldering wreckage before that chequered flag is met so, as long as you drive at a piddly pace, a decent final position in a multi-event series is a near-certainty.

But the real problem is the curse of the bargain-bin name. While Crash 'N Burn's cheap moniker suggests 'budget find', its production values do little to dispel the image. Visually, the unlicensed cars look incredibly basic. The wobbly outlines are low-end PS2, and if you compare its poor lighting effects to Midnight Club 3, the two games are so far apart you could park a lorry between them. The modding section too, with its limited vehicle range, is a shallow afterthought, featuring parts that could barely soup up a Lego model. And speaking of Lego, Crash 'N Burn is definitely a title for younger gamers.

Still, for all its faults, Crash'n'Burn remains a reasonable time-passer - it's pure, finger-on-the-pulse arcade action, with a simplicity so immediate it makes games like Need for Speed Underground 2 seem like uncompromising sims in comparison. Kids might enjoy it, but whether there's enough to warrant the pennies is another matter. Even with 16-man Live play thrown in.

1. Simple, arcade-like gameplay that plays more like a kart racer than a traditional street-based one. For kids only.
2. Various styles of circuit track, with a huge emphasis on crashing, charging your opponents and avoiding debris.
3. Looks very cheap, with basic visuals and an even simpler modding section. Some poor level design too.
4. Despite the reasonably low-end production values, it's still fun to play and handles very well.
5. Very good online options that allow up to sixteen players to compete at once. Nice variety of games too.

You can't deny it's enjoyable, but this is cheap bargain-bin fodder at heart. Good Live options though.