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In my time, which has been a very, very long time indeed, as I am in fact a pan-dimensional reviewer from Ursa Minor, I have seen hundreds, thousands, nay countless numbers of racing games. Such a number indeed, that if they were stacked one atop another on your planet known as Earth, then the pile would stretch so far into space that it would prod the Sun itself, causing such a solar flare that all life on the planet as you, me, or even my interdimensional milkman know it, would end. So do not do it, Earthlings.

But now I have the immeasurable pleasure of being able to report that I have seen a racing game that is different from all the others, so different and unnaturally exciting that the essence of your very being will tremble and tingle, and induce a weak-at-the-knees feeling.

That game is called Power Drift, and is from one of your own Earth companies; one that goes by the name of Activision. Power Drift is an arcade conversion, that is beyond the Amstrad CPC's ability to reproduce, and yet it has been.

There are twenty-seven sections of track, with six selectable locations, and a choice of twelve different drivers. And different they are too; not only do they have their own little picture, but they drive at different speeds, or would if you drove the car to its full potential.

Racing over a mighty four laps, the course strays this way and that, up hill and over dale and, strangest of all, along roller-coaster-like sections of elevated track. A slip here leads to an unpleasant demise below! Your buggy has high and low gear settings as normal, and acceleration and brakes, although should you stop accelerating, you start to slow down. Unlike those in the recent Continental Circus, the opposing drivers here go hell for leather, so finishing in the first three positions, which is necessary to advance to the next stage, is far from easy. When the drivers in front start slewing around and you are on an elevated section, trouble is only a few revs away.

Equally, however, unlike many driving games, a fullspeed collision with another driver's rear end is far from fatal: rather it is just as likely to run them off the road as it is you.

The graphics and speed of the racing are all very good, and the gameplay is quite difficult, which makes a first-three placing a real achievement. Practice makes life easier, but it is good to see that the game is well balanced enough to give encouragement without being easy.

Personally, I would have thought that mere Earth programmers would have had a difficult task converting the heaving gameplay of Power Drift to the humble CPC, but the coders at Activision have done a quite splendid job.