TrackMania

Just as there's a fine dividing line between first place and second, TrackMania constantly walks a tightrope between addiction and frustration. One feature keeps it from teetering over the wrong side, and that's the instant restart. Jab the minus button on the remote and you can immediately try again. As in the similarly tricky Trials HD, you'll learn to do it the second you make a mistake, because in that awful moment you know that on anything above the lowest difficulty, the race is lost.

Lightly brushed a wall? Restart. Missed the optimum angle of approach on a jump? Restart. Skidded a tiny bit round that last bend? Restart. Before you know it, a quick go has turned into an epic war of attrition: you versus the track.

Having completed the Easy tracks - no mean feat in itself - you'll unlock the Medium difficulty, which is really where TrackMania literally and metaphorically drives you loopy. Tracks get longer, harder and more intricate, even the bronze medal AI drivers post seriously competitive times, and the tiniest of errors can ruin an otherwise perfect run. Your telly will likely be subjected to a regular tirade of foul-mouthed abuse, and at some point you may well consider stamping on your stupid Wii remote. At which point, it's probably high time you explored the other game modes.

The Track Editor will be some players' first port of call, perhaps because those of us old enough to remember it will be reminded of their first time constructing a Scalextric kit. The tools are flexible, the tutorials thorough, and the interface is simple enough to make complex tracks a relatively painless process (even if it's probably a good deal quicker and more intuitive on the DS game).

Once you've validated your first track (simply by driving around it) you unlock the Puzzle mode, a brilliant mix of construction and racing. The idea is to create the fastest route from start to finish with a limited set of track pieces, ensuring they pass through all the checkpoints on the way. Initially there's only one way to solve each puzzle, but they get progressively more fiendish. It's just a pity they're so limited in number - just 21 in all - in comparison to the races.

The final mode on offer is the Platform mode, where gold, silver and bronze are achieved not through the fastest times but the least number of retries. Levels here almost resemble stages from a Sonic game, with looping sections of track, speed boosts, huge jumps and giant bumpers to swerve around. The vehicular acrobatics triggered vague memories of Geoff Crammond's Stunt Car Racer in this former Amiga lover, though that might be because it was three in the morning and I was starting to see funny colours in front of my eyes after 32 attempts at the same level. By this stage I was definitely addicted, but not entirely sure whether I was still enjoying myself.

And that's TrackMania all over. At heart, it's a big bundle of contradictions. It's a game with dozens of crazy tracks which forces you to jump through hoops simply to get to them. It's a game where you wonder whether you're on the ideal racing line while midway up a half-pipe the size of a skyscraper. Its cars are fairly bland in look but gloriously quirky in feel, while the wackiest track designs you'll encounter in any racer are couched in sterile environments. In short, it takes having fun extremely seriously. As long as you've got the patience to handle it, you'll find that's no bad thing.