The courses in Rollcage Stage II are also rather short. Believe us when we say this is a good thing. Amanda De Cadenet - remember her? - once said in an interview that she'd rather have five minutes of filth than half an hour of arduous bump 'n' grind and, at last, we understand what she meant. Eschewing the lengthy course design of most contemporary racing games, some of the tracks in RSII seem to be over in a blink. You can memorise each turn within a few laps but the familiarity this engenders has absolutely nothing to do with contempt. Instead, you begin to push your oddly-styled vehicle to its limits. There's a fraction of a second to be gained on every corner and every straight. It makes RSII that bit more instinctive and, therefore, distinctive. Oh, and on an entirely related note, its Time Trial mode is brilliant too.

Ah, yes. Modes. Rollcage Stage II has them, and in numbers. From tournaments to a generic Arcade mode, to the Scramble courses where you drive perilous time trials on tracks with few crash barriers, it provides numerous permutations of its basic racing model. The more you play it, and the greater successes you enjoy, the more goodies it reveals to you. From cars to competitions, RSII is keen to reward skilled efforts. For that, we salute it.

We have a few reservations, of course. Like its predecessor, there are occasional instances where Rollcage Stage II leaves you horribly disoriented. If we're honest, we're also not entirely convinced by its crash mechanics, but on the other hand, this encourages you to drive to the best of your ability. Its weapon systems aren't entirely to our tastes either. Call us luddites, but we're happy with rockets, shields and speed-up collectibles. We absolutely hate the kind of power-up that slows down or damages everyone on the track with impunity. This is a subjective gripe, however. Besides, you can turn off the weapons at any point.

Rollcage Stage II is one of the most naturally enjoyable games we've played in months. May the Psygnosis renaissance continue apace.