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As you zoom away from the starting line you feel the wind whistle around your helmet and the uneveness of the road surface but this is not a simulation of driving along London's roads littered with potholes - it is International Speedway where winning is everything.

One thing is certain; you will not be a winner if you pay any more than the asking price. For the budget price of £1.99 you get a truly budget game with all the thrills and spills of a hangover.

International Speedway puts the player in the position of a newcomer to the dirt track. You have spent loadsamoney on your new scrambler motorcycle and are confident you can beat the opponents in your local league.

At the starting line you rev your two-stroke and wait for the green for go. Green and they are off. Well, all except you, who just plods along until your cycle has reached running temperature.

The upper portion of the screen shows a view of your player on the track as if he were being trailed by a camera. The rest of the display is taken up by a plan view of the race in progress and some useless graphics alongside to fill otherwise empty space.

The view of the race gives little impression of speed, especially as the plan view of the oval shows small coloured squares shooting around it at speed, especially as the plan view of the oval shows small coloured squares shooting around it at fantastic speed.

I found my bike to have no brakes and was puzzled why it slowed automatically when approaching a corner and continued to slow the more you cut into it. Once out of the corner it accelerated to such a speed that the straight was almost unnoticeable and the whole race seemed to be constant cornering.

Graphically the game is poor, especially seeing how much of the screen is wasted on unused illustrations. The sound effects leave much to be desired and the gameplay was so boring that I felt I could make a cup of tea without missing anything. The unfortunate thing about many budget titles is that they are always considered to be worth less development time, so the game appears to have been knocked up in two afternoons.

International Speedway is no exception.