Rumble Racing is the riproaring, rubber-burning and petrol-guzzling new release on PlayStation2 from our reliable friends at Electronic Arts.

The game began life under the Nascar licence (Nascar being America's No.1 spectator motorsport), which has spawned many titles on many formats over the past few years.

Electronic Arts has broken away from faithfully simulating the original sport and taken a much more fun, arcade approach.

The game is played in either one player or two- player split-screen mode, and sees you pitted against seven ferocious opponents in each race.

The crazy courses, of which there are 15, are peppered with power-ups, including shockwaves, bombs, landslides and the awesome twister which, when activated, causes a devastating whirlwind to tear down the road in front of you throwing cars and scenery into the air.

Each track has a number of ramps and jumps and performing a stunt while in mid-air rewards your car with a short nitro-boost, giving valuable speed.

The game moves at a breathtakingly-smooth 60 frames per second and, although the scenery is not graphically ground-breaking, it hurtles by so quickly you do not really get a chance to see it anyway.

It is also useful to keep your eye out for the hidden shortcuts on most of the circuits.

Rumble Racing is great fun and the most playable and addictive racer on the PlayStation2 thus far.

Price: £39.99.

Contact: 0870 2432435.

Feel good factor: 8 out of 10.

- Jason Bradshaw