Naturally, a game doesn't need to be beautiful to be enjoyable, but it helps if it is. Bereft of any depth of gameplay, Superbike 2000 is an ugly, guileless shambles. With murky textures and a distinct lack of trackside variety, racing along its characterless tubes is anything but invigorating. Worse still, the animation cycles - pun not intended, but what the hell - for bikes moving in and out of the screen are abysmal. They jerk from tiny to life-size in a wholly unconvincing manner.

Driving your 'bike' - and the parentheses are present for a reason - is unsatisfying, tiresome and unconvincing. Superficially, it's a motorbike of some description, but it may as well be the car from Outrun. Now we're not being bitchy for the hell of it here; this is no hair-pulling, handbag-swinging moment. It's a simple observation: the bikes in Superbike 2000 have handling mechanics that feel pretty much identical to mid-'80s car driving games, but without the charm or balance. Its AI routines are also questionable. It's frustrating to notice that as you take a corner as capably as is humanly possible, your CPU-controlled competitors sweep around at greater speed. You don't find yourself wondering how or why they do it though, because, frankly, there's nothing about Superbike 2000 that encourages you to care for even the briefest of moments.

Mind you, we had a multiplayer session of GT2 after our last game of Superbike 2000 and it was ace.