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A quick glance at the screenshot will bring you to the conclusion that this game is very much like The Last V8. It is, but it isn't by Mastertronic and it isn't a rip off. The three gentlemen who wrote V8 have run off to form their own software house, CodeMasters, and it's very much a family affair, two brothers and their father. Programming son Richard Darling has a bit of a bike fixation so, as you might expect, there's one in Red Max.

Your friends have been captured and are being held in suspended animation for one reason or another. Get on your powerful Red Max motorbike, and go and rescue them. But if you've played V8, you're going to know that it's not going to be easy.

There are three tasks you must complete before you can get your friends back safe and sound with you. The first is to de-activate twenty-seven fissure mines. Deactivating them is easy but reaching them all is not because of the various different laser traps you have to get past. Of all these devices only one lets you survive if you collide with it. That one is the laser fence. If you go through it at a fast enough speed you can survive and will get off with just a dilapidated shield.

The second task is to turn on eight back-up nuke-core cooling systems. You must also shut down four power plants. But remember you can't shut down any power plants until you've finished with the cooling systems.

The third and final task is to reanimate the nine crew members. Which I... er, haven't quite reached yet.

The two biggest similarities between this and V8 are obviously the graphical layout with its small screen representation, and the toughness. Like its earlier counterpart Red Max is incredibly difficult (anyone who sends Play to Win a map will probably get an O.B.E.) I am stuck on the second level!

One of the best things about the game is the control method, due to the size of the small screen you cannot see very far in front of you. So, when you go at a fast speed it is incredibly dangerous.

Red Max as you can see, looks very nice. The scrolling is faultless and very fast too. The sound is also quite good.

I'm looking forward to more budget delights from those masters of code.