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Battlecars features four different sections, all of which should keep you occupied for some time with their complexity and action. The four sections are a driving race, a car fight in an arena, a battle in a town and a chance to design your own car.

The cars are horrendous monsters kitted out with all sorts of technology and weapons to make them real mean machines. They have armour, offensive weapons like missiles and lasers and defences like oil slicks and smoke. There are already eight cars set up but you can produce your own using a beautiful graphic designer sequence.

The cars battle either against each other or against the clock on the racing circuit. The autodrome is a bare arena in which the cars try to inflict more damage on their opponents than they receive themselves.

Slug City is a townscape in which two players can fight it out, this time in the close confines of the streets. The circuit is less violent, with cars competing in a straight driving race round some rough terrain or against the clock.

In the autodrome and the circuit you can compete against a computer opponent, but in Slug City it's you, a friend and two keyboard overlays battling it out.

The screen for each game shows the area in which each car is driving, a map of the whole territory, its speed and fuel, as well as updates on the damage it has sustained and weapons still available.

The sound isn't up to much - there is very little of it! - but that doesn't detract from the fun.

It will take you a while to get to know the controls and all the aspects of the game but it's well worth doing. It's a bleak view of an automotive future but terrific to play.

The game itself is best suited to people with more than the regulation number of hands - some twelve keys are required for absolute control of your vehicle.

Despite this, Battlecars is really rather fun. The screen layout is original and clear, well suited (as are the dual sets of keys) to the two-player option. Also, given the amount going on all at once, the graphics are very adequate, if a little jerky.

The game requires some effort to be put into it for its entertainment potential to be realised, but it is worth it.

Because of the incredible amount of keys needed to control the car, especially if you chose to include weapons, it soon becomes apparent that to keep moving as you want and to attack your opponent as well is almost impossible.

This is not a game I would recommend.

I found the game boring and complicated, which is a great pity, because the instructions make it look really exciting. Another one for the white elephants' graveyard, I'm afraid.