A Mario Kart 64-beater on the PlayStation? Not only that, it's one of the best games ever released on the platform.
Ben East

There are always videogames that are eagerly awaited. On the PlayStation we all cursed our Japanese cousins for having Metal Gear Solid earlier than us, and we're about to feel exactly the same when a Resident Evil 3 street date some time in the new millennium becomes common knowledge. The lure of the big names, the continuation of a story - it's all good stuff. But then there's the games that come out of nowhere. In at number one with a bullet, that sort of idea.

And Speed Freaks is one of those games, forever destined to be one of the PlayStation titles we look back on and sigh happily about in years to come. It is, in short, as near to perfection as this incarnation of the PlayStation is likely to get. Yes, that good.

The Mario Kart comparisons are bound to be made, and not without reason. You're half expecting some plumber with blue overalls to waddle onto the screen to congratulate the winners of each race. But who really, actually, cares? Mario Kart 64 is still one of the must-own N64 games, and Speed Freaks is hardly going to set out to be S.C.A.R.S now, is it? It's got that same fast, furious gameplay, same loveable characters and same fantastic power-ups that Mario Kart made famous, and you'll love every single second of it.