PC CD-ROM minimum system requirements: 486DX2/66mhz; 8MB RAM <1MB hard disk space; DOS 5.0; Dual speed CD-ROM drive; SVGA. £19.99
IF it wasn't for Super Mario kart racing sims might never have seen the light of day. But after the success of the brilliant Super Mario Kart, kart racing 5 have even made it to the serious PC. As opposed to its SNES counterpart Manic Karts does appear to be a little more serious but the objective is still the same - fast and frantic fun.
There are also four different modes of gameplay - Hard Season, Easy Season, Manic Cup and Single Race. As you progress through a championship in Season mode you will earn varying amounts of money depending on your finishing positions. This extra cash can either be stored in an offshore account, which won't do you much good, or be used to upgrade your kart in various ways.
Manic Karts, which has 16 tracks scattered around eight countries, is a good, all-round, racing game and its strongest point lies in the handling of the karts. While some customisation can be done, the default settings still manage to give a great sense of the flavour of the chaos that is kart racing.
Its weakest point, however, is the seemingly endless amount of time the game takes to load each race. Despite this, it's still great fun.
Graphics: 79%, Sound: 76%, Gameplay: 88%