The interactive environments throw up quite a few more surprises, such as teleporting your car up to the top of high platforms and firing you out across the water. The laboured kerr-aziness is reminiscent of Twisted Metal and its many sequels on PlayStation.

It's a shame that nobody thought that Vigilante 8's most glaring problem was worth fixing though. The weapons, rather puny in the original game, are still disappointingly weak. Although they now come with snazzy new effects, like the Wipeout-style earthquake ripple, they rarely do sufficient damage to the other cars. The high-impact stuff is accessed by special moves that are hardly practical when you're trying to manoeuvre your car at the same time.

The game is at its best with at least one other player. The two-player co-op mode has the same levels and missions as the one-player game but provides a completely different playing style. One person can protect the base while the other goes looking for trouble, or both can team up to inflict double the damage on the computer cars. With three or four players, it's more of a standard deathmatch affair. Even though the frame rate on the larger levels can get quite jerky, it's a playable and competitive affair.

If you are a big fan of the original game, Second Offence is just what you've been looking for. It's Vigilante 8 with different levels and extra cars - more of an expansion set than a completely new game.