Zeppelin Games
£2.99

Go-karting hasn't been used as a game theme for, um... well, it's never been used! So, if you fancy racing it up, jump in!

There are three circuits to race around, each different in layout, featuring hills, valleys and plenty of scenery that flies past at a rate of knots. Racing against three other crazy 'karters and the clock, your kart is equipped with a hell of a lot of speed: four gears, and a turbo booster for that extra thrust.

Gameplay is incredibly simple - push down on the accelerator and keep your kart on the track! But it's not easy, especially as there are so many signs, billboards and hay bales lining the route - crash into one and your kart goes flying sky high! Pro Go-kart Simulator, as the inlay says, is all about speed - unfortunately there's just a bit too much. Your 'kart has two speeds: none and too fast, making it tough to keep total control of the 'kart. The action happens screen centre, surrounded with decorative bits and bobs, but the playing area is too small to clearly see what's happening on the track. Well programmed and technically very good, it suffers from lack of solid playability to keep you coming back for more.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Looking for something cheap? How about RICH PELLEY (now at half price - a snip)? Er, on second thoughts...

Zeppelin Games
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Still no sign of Andy 'Street Hawk' Ounsted's Crap Bike Simulator, only this Pro Go-Kart Sim from Zeppelin. Which is a pretty good thing really, because I'm sure you'd agree that a game which is murder to start up, breaks down every five minutes and won't go above 27 and a half mph (on a good day) would be a bit crap. Very crap, in fact. Luckily, though, Pro Cart Sim is a whole bucket of carrots better, so let's talk about that instead, eh, sports-fans?

Hmm. Not that much to say really. (Make up your mind! Ed) It's a back-view-of-your-vehicle- drive-into-the-screen jobby (along the lines of OutRun, Enduro Racer etc), but you could've probably worked that out from the screenshot. The whole thing chugs along at a cracking pace - almost too fast to handle sometimes because you do tend to start crashing into walls and things which appear from absolutely nowhere. That's more than a bit annoying, and forces me to lower its mark by absolutely loads. But there is lots of variety (four tracks to choose from), and the thing's really quite playable and dead easy to get into.

Label: Zeppelin
Price: £2.99
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Oh dear. This isn't so much Pro Go-Kart Simulator, more Pro Making You Go Blind As You Squint at the Awful Graphics Simulator.

Trouble is, in the effort to convey the speed and excitement of go-kart racing, the programmers have decided to make the screen as busy as possible, with the track lurching up and down and things whizzing out of the background at breakneck speed, zooming from side to side and disappearing in a whirl of pixels.

The result is a completely messy display which may look fine from the screenshots, but just you try playing it and keeping track (agghh!) of what's going on.

You begin on the starting grid with all four of your competitors in your sights. As the timer finishes counting down, they zoom off, leaving you in hot pursuit as you crash through your four gears, which change automatically as you pick up speed. At the appropriate moment you can floor the accelerator to get a Turbo Boost, but when you do the likely outcome is that you'll bash into one of the obstacles on the track, such as straw bales and lap boards, spin through space and end up in a heap of dust on the side of the road.

There's a bit more to it than just flooring the accelerator and smashing into something, but not much. The position indicator at the top of the screen shows you the remaining distance to go, and there are speed, lap and fuel indicators at the bottom of the screen. On either side are pictures of your leering opponents who pursue you over the three available tracks.

There's the seed of a good game here, but even if the animation wasn't so blindingly messy, it wouldn't have fared much in the way of originality.

On the whole, then, it's the pits (pun).

Zeppelin Games
Spectrum £2.99

Burn along to three test tracks and race YOUR Go-Kart against four of the craziest Go-Karting enthusiasts ever to hit the face of the Earth. Aha! But you have a secret weapon up your sleeves (and presumably on your Kart) - turbo boost power!

As you can tell from the screenshot, the viewing area in this 3D game isn't quite large enough, and even with this reduced space, the 3D itself is jerky and unconvincing. My advice is to forget about this tepid release right now and choose something better, like that fine golden oldie (now also at budget price) Enduro Racer.