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The screenshots on the inlay card looked promising and I had high hopes for Red Max. After 22 minutes loading, my enthusiasm was beginning to wane slightly, but thankfully it loaded first time.

The storyline revolves around the survivors of Earth's Global War who have colonised the moon.

They become a little concerned on discovering that the sun is about to explode, so they fit the moon with a few anti-gravity orbs, catapult it from the solar system, and kip down for 1,200 years - planning on waking up long after the sun has gone nova.

Things start off well enough for the fugitives, but unfortunately a band of renegade Death Lords hitch a ride in order to sabotage the power plants.

It is your job to get on your lunar motorbike, find the mines they have planted and deactivate them.

Having disabled the mines, you progress to the engineering level, turn on the back-up nuclear cooling systems and shut down the main power plants.

Lastly you must descend to the hibernation complex and wake up nine crew members. You have an aerial view of the whole operation.

Controlling the bike with the joystick is simple. The only controls, apart from left and right, are acceleration and deceleration, achieved by pressing and releasing the fire button.

You must avoid collisions with buildings and walls while negotiating flashing laser fences and gates.

To neutralise the mines, collect fuel, temporarily disable laser fences and switch off reactors, you'll have to ride over certain key objects.

I found the game very pleasing visually, with smooth movement and detailed graphics.

There are complaints, however. In particular the bottom two thirds of the screen is taken up by the motorcycle console which shows speed, revs, fuel level and the state of your shields.

There is also a small prompt screen that tells you what to do next and warns of low fuel levels.

The console looks very pretty, but actually contributes little to the game. Despite this, Red Max is one of the best budget games I've seen.