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A racing game for the nineties - big wheeled trucks, dirt track courses, nitro-charged engines and the endorsement of a living legend. It's got reviewers revving their engines when they hear it mentioned. But just how many laps can you go with it?

Ivan 'Iron Man' Stewart's Super Off-Road Racer to furnish this game with its full title - is sort of the hard man's version of Super Sprint. Gone are the smooth tarmac roads and sleek racing cars. This is Stadium Racing with dust, water, mud, hills and 4x4 trucks with big knobbly tyres.

The gameplay is more or less identical to the Leland coin-op of the same name (no, I'd never heard of it either), boasting simultaneous three player off-road racing action. The aim is simple: there are eight different courses, each meaner and grubbier than the last. You race around these twice (once clockwise, the other anti) against three other competitors (computer-controlled or with up to two chums) one of which is always old metal blokey Stewart. The idea is to win the whole championship by staying in front of the other guys. This fairly straightforward idea is complicated by the fact that the other guys are also after the championship, of course.

Your truck comes fitted with nitro injection, and a quick jab of the fire button gives your vehicle a severe kick up the exhaust, sending it whizzing across ditch and pond. You start with a set store of nitrous oxide but as you trundle around the course, you get the chance to pick up extra nitro. Bags of money also appear which are automatically plonked into you piggy bank for later on.

If you come anything other than first, you're out of the championship. However, you do have two chances to continue in the form of credits which are worth a cool $200,000 apiece (at this point I was tempted to call to quits and buy a yacht, but no... on with the muck-churning). If you're doing well, you can always choose to trade the credits in for cash, which you can then spend at the mid-level shop.

Spare doshola is used to customise your truck with extra acceleration, a higher top speed, improved shock absorbers, and better tyres. Each of these features has a rating which can be increased to a maximum of five. You can also buy extra nitro injections if you're a bit heavy-handed with the fire button. Once your shopping bag is full, its pedal to the metal and over to the next starting line.

The truck's sprites are really tiny but are nicely animated (if a bit over-wobbly). Unfortunately, though the tracks are varied in design, all a rather drab muck brown - no prizes for exterior decoration here.

Control is via joystick for players 1 and 2, while player 3 has to crouch over the keyboard. The commands are simply steer left, steer right, accelerate, brake and fire to kick in the nitro. Generally. I find keyboard controls more effective than the joystick with these types of games (since I'm a bit of a spong with the old stick) [I've always wondered what a spong was - Dep Ed] but Iron Man's keyboard control layout isn't so hot.

With five keys to get your fingers on, it's practically impossible for left-handed people to control the thing! It's often difficult to steer precisely. because the trucks are bouncing all over the place; you can't quite tell exactly what direction the thing is pointing in. Another real niggle is the act that the computer-controlled trucks are able to knock you all over the place, but carry on regardless, while your 4x4 goes bouncing all over the shop. On several occasions they ganged up on my truck and knocked from first to last place. Annoying or what?

IIMSSORR is nicely put together, good to watch and great to listen to. There are a couple of smart soundtracks to jolly you along - including a really funky Dukes Of Hazzard-style ditty - plus a few effects (although some decent, throaty roaring wouldn't have gone amiss).

Playing with mates is good fun, but the solo trucky might not get too many thrills. Recommended, but strictly for race fans.

1. Small, manically wobbling sprites make steering a bit vague.
2. Joystick control is a challenge in itself.
3. Unfairly biased towards the computer-controlled opposition.

1. Three player option really makes the action special.
2. Once the steering is mastered, play is fast and furious.
3. Single load for cassette users.
4. Truck customisation adds an extra level of strategy.
5. Tiny truck sprites are neat and well animated.
6. Racy soundtracks help generate a suitable atmosphere.
7. Bonus collection helps keep you on your toes.
8. Clever course designs stop the action from becoming stale.