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Remember that abusive driving arcade game where you were rated a granny if you didn't come up to scratch? Supercars 2 shows that this genre is still going strong. It's a straightforward racing game played on a variety of small circuits and has you winning money in races in order to spice up your car with all manner of helpful techie gadgetry.

There are three levels in all - Easy, Medium and Hard - and each level has seven circuits of increasing difficulty. You don't get just plain driving surfaces either - snow, rocks and sandy terrain can really hamper your abilities as a pro driver. What's more, there are plenty of other drivers who'll stop at nothing to grind you into the ground - literally. You start out with a limited arsenal: simply a couple of missiles, which you activate by pushing your joystick either forward or backwards.

If you manage to qualify for a race, then you can gamble your winnings away in the communication part of the game - a character appears in the display and asks you a question.

Select the correct answer out of the three provided and you can make a hefty bonus on your earnings. Give a wrong answer and you lose your cash. If you've got anything left, you can do some on-the-spot repairs, but yourself some weaponry for your car or invest in some armour to lessen the effect of collisions.

You can get homing missiles that gently remove the opposition, or super missiles which spin about your car and destroy anything in their path - even mines! Unfortunately the other drivers all have access to the same gizmos. Racing just isn't what it used to be!

There is also a simultaneous two-player mode which uses a split-screen display - you can battle with a mate and laugh manically as you drive him to the edge - and over it.

The circuits in Supercars 2 are very attractively designed and the scrolling is smooth enough. Even so, the car sprites, while well animated in themselves, are decidedly bland. Even in two-player mode there are no distinguishing features to highlight other drivers - just the same drab grey car sprites. The other racers could have one with a hell of a lot more personality. Sound is poor - no samples, just burbling rev noises and an irritating intro tune.

The two-player mode is this game's saving grace. It makes up for the general lack of individuality among the other drivers. There is far too much disk accessing between races as well, which slows the whole pace of the game down. The communication screens seem totally out of place and rely more on luck than skill - a bit of an unfair way to treat a driving fan who's just there for the thrills of the race.

Supercars II is still attractive though, because it introduces a fun combative element into the game without ruining the basic idea of racing. It doesn't claim to be anything stunningly original, but at least it doesn't call you a granny when you come in last.