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Full Throttle borrows heavily from Pole Position and is Micromega's follow-up to Codename Mat. It's a 500cc motorcycle racing game with 40 competing riders and ten race tracks.

Your aim is not to cover as many miles as possible in the shortest time, nor to set the fastest lap time. Your task is simply to come first.

Once loaded you're presented with maps of the ten tracks, from the relatively simple Silverstone to the horrendously complex Nurburgring. Having selected one of these you either opt for a practice bash on your own or decide how many laps you want the race to be (up to five). Then it's off to the starting line and away.

There are only four controls: right, left, accelerate and brake. Acceleration takes you to the top speed of 175mpg quite quickly, with a rising buzz mimicking the exhaust note. Right and left lean your bike across the track and braking is quite harsh. The temptation is simply to burn up to max speed and hold it there, which you soon discover is a lousy strategy as you career off the track and into the grass on your final corner.

It's best to make a few practice laps of each circuit before getting into racing proper. This lets you trundle round any course at a leisurely rate, learning the vagaries of the course and how best to tackle bends. The best policy is to hammer into left-handers, choosing a line from the right of the course, while right bends require a more careful approach from the left, braking as you enter the bend, and accelerating briskly round the apex. This is fine on your tod, but harder when you're jockeying for position with up to forty other riders.

My favourite feature of the game is the skid - really authentic this. The idea in motorcycle racing is to go into a bend just fast enough to drift (skid) round, but under control. While the control in this version is limited, it's still great fun and very well done indeed, with a neat sound effect. I also liked the fact that clashing fairing with another rider or coming off the track doesn't stop the game - you simply lose speed.

Full Throttle is not an easy game.

The graphics are reasonable, the road and mountains scroll around quite smoothly but the riders are a bit flickery. The sound is adequate and the game just compelling enough to make you have 'just one more go' to beat the others.