After battling with these darned karts for a while now, I am still at a loss to understand why the programmer has not included the fire button as an option to use as an accelerator, instead preferring the game to struggle manfully with the forward position on the stick/pad, and why he has not bothered to proffer the keyboard as a control method?

Dropping in these two simple fellows would have improved the shebang considerably. They could still not, however, mask the fact that Virtual Karting is a game that the Amiga does not need.

Conveniently forgetting for the moment that there is a dearth of karting games on the market, I would suggest that any supporter of the racing genre will already have a game in their collection which is considerably better than this. The Lotus games, bless 'em. Good ol' F1GP. We won't mention Micro Machines, or Super Skidmarks. There is many more.

Before we continue, do not go thinking that some of the screen shots that dot around the pages are representative of the game. Our picture grabber had all kinds of trouble with this game. No, Virtual Karting is prettier, much smoother looking and does not have all the dodgy lines across it. Our apologies. Virtual Karting is fully texture mapped and this, it seems, is its USP (that will be Unique Selling Point - and who left that damn marketing bible around).

"Oh my giddy Aunt," you exclaim upon discovering that the game runs between 25 and 50 frames per second, depending on whether your machine accelerates faster than one of these here karts. Virtual Karting seems to set great store by its technological 'innovations'. Sadly, it really is not a wildly impressive visual experience. Hang it, I do not care a jot whether it is texture mapped or novamura-d (that bumpy wallpaper, you know). I want to get in a little buggy - one which I can safely negotiate around bends - and drive very quickly over a variety of courses.

But this game offers no real feeling of seed. You can watch a speedo in the bottom, left-hand corner of the screen and see that old KPH steadily rising, but back in the hotseat you still feel like a pedestrian.

There are two ways you can view the races in: 2D or 3D. The 2D option is a straight overhead perspective, while the 3D view has four slightly different angles. Overhead, the race seems slower, while the lower the 3D angle, the quicker the car seems to move - although when you are the lowest of the low, it is incredibly difficult to anticipate the bends.

So Virtual karting is best played in the highest of the 3D views, where you can get a reasonable sensation of speed while at the same time traverse the bends with as much confidence as the rather difficult to get the hang of control method allows.

In the 2D mode, you can play half screen and the actions are hot pace-wise, though a magnifying glass would be a bonus.

Back to the control method. Holding the joystick/pad forward and controlling the kart to any degree of accuracy is an awful task. You sway this way and that, oversteering and bumping off course on to the (texture mapped) grass which slows you to snails pace.

It is not such a problem on the beginners course, but once you hop to the next two, it is terribly frustrating, particularly on the really tight horseshoe bends. Yes, I know practice makes perfect, but anyone who has played any racing game will know that using the fire button to accelerate is much more satisfying and a darn more concise. So actually the mouse control is probably best.
If I was of London extraction, I would suggest: "OTM, SORT IT OOOOUUUUUT".

It is a shame really. The programmer, Fabio Bizzetti (possibly an Italian fellow) is obviously dedicated to the Amiga, and the work on the graphics and pre-race fly-bys is tremendous, but Virtual Karting is a triumph of design over content. Three courses and two cars (100cc and 125 cc) - with no championships or leagues to compete in.

But hey, the texture mapping, the frames per second. I almost feel apologetic - certainly the technical feats of the game are quite tremendous - if the Amiga had an '030 as standard this could have been developed into a much smarter, faster, more enjoyable game. But when the car is the very devil to control, when the sound effects are tinny and you feel like you are trundling along in a milk float, something has obviously gone wrong.

As an attempt at producing a 'realistic' karting simulation, this may well be visually excellent, but as exciting driving games go, it is certainly left in the lower rankings.

Just take a look at those pictures. Not because they look like they were taken from a badly tuned television, ignore that bit, it's got something to do with our image grabber failing to get on with the game's subtle screen manipulation. Squint past them and admire the detail, the views, the karts themselves. Stunning, aren't they? Although you might have seen the preview we ran about this game last month, I want you to just have a quick scan over these four pages. Go on, take your time. I'll still be here when you get back.

What great is, the pictures you can see here came from the humble AP office A1200. There's nothing special about it. It's probably more or less exactly the same one you own and play games on. Makes you feel kinda good inside to see our lovely little machine capable of doing something like this, doesn't it?

SPEEDY
But the single most pleasing aspect about Virtual Karting is that it's not just a graphical showcase. We've come to expect that most of these aesthetic masterpieces all lack one vital ingredient. Gameplay. Playability. Whatever you call it.

This is different enough. Instead of the vacuous and empty vessels we've come to expect, Virtual Karting is pumped up (to the max) with adrenaline, excitement and loads and loads of keyboard-thumping, expletive-shouting, fist-waving, best-lap-time cheering action. In fact it's so good, I think we should put the word ACTION in capital letters. There, that's better.

It's all done by simply getting the right parts of the game working correctly. Not only do the graphics look great frozen (apart from all the wavy lines and odd colour splashes, etc. Once again, we apologise for our outmoded technology), but when they're moving there's no judderingly sluggish update (except of course if you get shunted from the side or behind, in which case the game justifiably disorientates you by moving you about a bit) and the game even slides nicely round corners, giving you just the right impression of movement.

This is enhanced even more by the responsive controls. Accelerating and braking are fast and the steering is spot on, most noticeable when the back of your car is sliding out around a corner.

The sliding can be brought down to a minimum by playing on the Beginner track (with its nice wide corners), but you've got to learn how to brake into corners before you progress to the Advanced and Expert tracks, otherwise you'll spend more time off the track than on it. With the time it takes you to get going again, you really don't want to do that.

STICKY
So that's the schmaltzy, excited, razzamatazz, cheerleaderly opening taken care of, leaving you in no doubt that I like the game. A bit over the top maybe (especially in light of the forthcoming "problems with the game" section), but after months of playing the dire, wheezing, desperate stuff that's dragged itself into the office, a good game's a real relief.

So, the review proper then. After you've fiddled around with a few opening games and got used to the behaviour of the karts (choose between the 100cc and 125cc models), you then start to get more involved. And although it really pains me to say this - the more you look at it, the more tiny holes you start to find. Bah.

We'll start with the most obvious and downright silly idea of having only one control system. Having one system is bad enough, but get this - you have to use UP to accelerate. One more time, that's UP to accelerate. It would have been a better idea to use the Fire button for accelerating. Jonathan and Cam would probably consider the fact that this isn't the case to be a crime against humanity on a par with the recent French nuclear tests, but I'm a bit more lenient. Though not much more.

As well as being blatantly STUPID, having to constantly press UP to accelerate into or out of a corner is a real problem. And coupled with the way you have to brake or accelerate harshly, it can mean that on tight turns, you slow down too much or go in too fast.

And once you've got past the rather easy Beginner track (nothing more than an introduction to the game, really), negotiating tight turns competently, becomes the linchpin of the game. Of course, the most exasperating thing is that it could have been avoided completely if there'd been other control options. Tut, tut. I didn't find it too much of hassle, but others clearly would.

STARK
What I did find a strain was the continual and predictable antics of the other karts, and their effect on you whenever you come into contact with them. Can you guess what it is yet? Yep, in EVERY case (which you can see beautifully from the 'overhead' view), when you smash into someone or they come up behind you or take a corner at a different angle, you AND ONLY YOU get shunted ina different direction.

Sometimes this can pay off, if you hit them at the right point on the apex of a turn for instance, but more often than not, it's a handicap and will see you eating grave! This problem really becomes game-threateningly annoying on the Expert level, but after a few hours play you're probably going to have conquered the Beginner and Advanced tracks anyway because hey, it's all a bit too easy as well.

The Beginner level took only a few hours play before I'd finished it in first place, and after a couple of near misses, I was the champion of the Advanced level as well. I'm still battling with the Expert level, mainly because of the awkward controls and the fact that every time I try and drive aggressively, I come off the worst. Still, I'm up to third place, and after only two days of playing it.

Now before you all eyeball your way to the end to see what feebly low score I've given this let met tell you the most odd thing about this game. Even with its problems - the controls, the computer controlled karts, even the lack of a two player game - I'm still going back for more and enjoying myself every time. I'm learning to control the kart, and getting better every time, and even when I mess up, I'm more likely to just press Escape that I am to battle on. Which is a good thing.

Which brings me to my main problem which is the conclusion. As you can probably tell, I'm sort of confused as to how to sum it all up. True, the game's got plenty of good points, but also has its fair share of bad points.

There are holes in the game, such as its lack of decent presentation (it would be nice to at least have a congratulations screen when you finish a track) and the fiddly controls, and the fact that there are only three tracks, but I can't get away from the fact that I'm going back time after time. And not just to play it to form an opinion, but because I'm having fun.

There's no doubt that the game could be better, though not substantially better. It needs tweaking, because what's here already is exhilarating stuff. Oh heck, I like it. Even if it is a bit rough around the edges.