Activision's first arcade conversion attempts to bring the power and thrills of high speed motorcycle racing into your living room. The action involves a series of motorcycle races contested over five courses, each accompanied by its own background landscape. The objective is simple; to successfully complete all the levels within the allotted time limit.

The biker is viewed in vanishing point perspective, from a position behind and slightly above his back. He's generally centred in the screen, while the track scrolls sideways as necessary to suggest curves, and the distant landscape follows suit. Activision have also attempted to incorporate bumps and hills (similar to those which appeared in the arcade game) over which the bike must wheelie - leaping into the air as it traverses the hazard.

The first course is set on a treelined country road. There's a handful of competitors to contend with, and a few jumps, or wheelies, to be executed.

A timer is set to 60 seconds at the beginning of each race, the limit within which the course must be completed - the actual time taken to complete a course is displayed at the end of each circuit. Opponent racers pose a threat, as collision between bikes slows you down and loses valuable time.

The second track, set in a desert, is made even more treacherous by the addition of rocks in the middle of the road, the third has puddles of water across the track, and the two final courses become harder and meaner versions of the second.

The bikes are completely devoid of animation, just single frame sprites which flicker and float about the lower portion of the screen, not even looking as if they're travelling along the road. The scrolling is incredibly poor, and the update on the 3D is juddery and slow. There's no feeling of speed - the difference between 10 and 200 kph is non-existent and the overall 3D effect is pathetic. The bike is incredibly sluggish to control and sometimes travels through rocks and objects as if they weren't there.

Then, all of a sudden, the program decides that it's made a mistake and rectifies the situation by toppling the bike when it's nowhere near an object. By the way, what's happened to the jeeps on level two and why are the colour schemes different from those of the original? Why are there misleading quotes on the packaging, when all of them are referring to the Spectrum version?

The final kick in the teeth is that the game is amazingly easy to complete, taking about half an hour to gain enough proficiency to win the race. I would not consider buying this under any circumstances, as the only similarity between this and its arcade counterpart is the name.

Talk about a pointless exercise! Enduro Racer is diabolical. It doesn't look, sound or play anything like the original - in fact, it doesn't play at all well full stop. Do yourself a favour and forget it.