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All future sports seem to be bloodthirsty festivals rejoicing in death. In Matrix Marauders motor sport has turned into a game of kamikaze piloting. You are a pilot on the matrix and you must be Number One or else spattered on the track. You control a futuristic spacecraft which can be fitted with a lethal array of weaponry. To make things difficult, your opponents have access to exactly the same kind of hardware.

You control your craft with mouse and joystick. The joystick controls the speed and direction of the craft, while the mouse moves your head and either changes or fires a weapon. The racecourse is in the form of a grid arranged in a series of a straights and shapes. Speed-ups and extra energy lie around the built-up areas of track.

If opponents get in your way you can hang a hard corner and hope to cut them off or you can lock weapons and then unleach a missile up - oh, say their sub-system cooling network. Some weapons, the Smart Gun for instance, lock on to targets automatically, while others require a bit of gun toting expertise to be effective.

Additional weaponry costs money and you've only got 1,000 credits initially. You earn money while on the Matrix itself - but since the most expensive weapon costs 8,000 credits, you'd be wise not to expect too much on your first race.

There's no second place, so if you lose a race, you die. If you get so good that the computer holds no challenge for you any more, then simply plug in a null modem cable and attach it to another ST to play head-to-head with a friend.

Matrix Marauders has the high quality of graphic presentation you'd expect from Psygnosis games. The ship ordnance and repair screens look futuristic and believable. There are innumerable clever touches like the lift sequence which places you on the matrix itself, though the graphics throughout the race are only adequate. The other spacecraft are solid 3D and all move fluidly. Weapons look good as they're fired and scrolling is seamless. The sound however is a bit of a disappointment: where are those chunky samples?

Matrix Marauders is a competent and interesting racing game with some clever twists, though unnecessarily "techie" - beginners should beware. Graphics are of a high quality and the animation is fast and smooth. The serial lead option enabling you to play a human opponent is a nice touch and the game probably plays a lot better this way. However, for all its nice touches, Matrix Marauders remains a fairly ordinary racing game.