"This isn't the first racing game that puts you behind the wheel of an armed vehicle, but Rollcage stands apart from the pack in several ways. Most racing games – even ones where you're shooting at other drivers – put a premium on keeping your car on the track as much as possible. In Rollcage, on the other hand, you can not only bounce and flip and always land wheel-side down, but can even drive on walls and ceilings. You might wonder just why you'd bother doing that, but sometimes it's the best way to pass an opponent, as well as the only way to grab certain power-ups. Then there's the whole notion of collisions. Sure, they slow you down, but hit the right object – a column supporting a building, for instance – and you'll be long gone as your opponent either gets buried in debris or runs smack-dab into a smoking heap of rubble.

Of course, you might prefer a more direct approach to slowing down your opponents, and that's where the power-ups scattered around each track come into play. Homing missiles automatically target the weakest parts of structures, letting you bring the walls tumbling down without letting up yourself; you can also target a vehicle in front of you and flip it out of control. The time warp slows down every car on the track except yours; leader missiles take out – you guessed it – the lead car; the driller bores through almost everything in its path; an ice sheet makes opponents lose nearly all their traction; and the wormhole lets you leapfrog past the car directly in front of you. And power-ups aren't limited to offensive weapons, either. Turbos boost your speed until the scenery is just a blur, and the shield protects you from enemy weapons and decreases the chance of spinouts after collisions.

Just like in Motorhead, the relatively humdrum car graphics in Rollcage are more than compensated for by wonderfully detailed trackside scenery – assuming you've got time to admire your surroundings while driving at breakneck speeds, that is. Vast cityscapes, barren volcanic wastelands, lush islands, and busy industrial sites are the sorts of settings you'll be racing on, and with the exception of some fairly cruddy 2D trees (common to nearly all arcade racers), the graphics work is top-notch. Even more visually impressive than the scenery are the weapon effects. During the time warp, the entire display begins to undulate and sway in a psychedelic haze; fire the leader missile, and you'll see brilliant trails of flames as it screams just above the track in search of the front-runner. My fave? The wormhole – it slowly advances on the car in front of you before engulfing it and removing it from your path.

You'll find all the usual race options here: League competition is the Rollcage equivalent of a season; Arcade lets you race on almost all of the game's twenty tracks; and Time Attack lets you try to top your own best lap times. A welcome feature is the inclusion of multiple difficulty levels; it takes considerable practice to learn how to handle a car that can drive upside down on a ceiling, but even the newest of newbies can compete on the game's easy setting.

Even on the easy setting, though, you'll run into one of the game's few drawbacks: You can get bashed around so much that sometimes you'll just want to throw up your hands in defeat. Picture driving bumper cars at 350 km/h, and you've got a notion of just how disorientating the smash-bang action in Rollcage can be. Practice can help you avoid some of the show-stopping collisions, but even the best drivers can fall victim the chaos."

Rollcage is not a revolutionary game, but ATD deserves kudos for introducing a new kind of racing experience. After all, how many racers let you destroy obstacles and drive on walls and ceilings? It may not be as addictive as classics of the genre, but it is far better than average. Highly recommended!