Game review: Wheelspin - Nintendo Wii

Good for him, and as a slighter older person, I hope he does make a few of the current crop of too-much-too-young youngsters look a little foolish. Which kinda brings me to Wheelspin for the Wii.

Described as a high-energy, high-impact racing game spread across a wide range of inter-planetary tracks, Wheelspin is bright, fast and - should you have that many mates – capable of being played by eight people at the same time!

And that’s about it.

Now for the bad news - put simply this is not a fun game.

It doesn’t look or sound good and is frustrating to play.

I like racing games a lot. Some you can get to grips with within seconds, some involve a steep learning curve, while others also allow you to modify your cars as much as you dare.

Wheelspin, for all of its substandard graphics, does not lack a sense of speed.

It does however lack any sort of common sense control system. A sideways controller, twisted one way or the other, makes you steer and the 2 button makes things go blurry.

Does it work? No.

Subtle wrist movements and deft flicks are met with the same result on some quite unnecessarily complicated tracks - disaster! No matter what you try, it is just too difficult to get to grips with.(Where’s the fun gone?)

Will you eventually get the hang of it? Who knows. I doubt anyone will have the patience to try.

Even the single-minded Michael S with his fighter pilot reflexes and win-at-all-costs tactical racing brain would struggle with this game.

I hope his return heralds in some wheel-to-wheel action (of the non-shunt into Damon variety) and edge-of-the-seat racing - because Wheelspin certainly won’t.

Verdict: 4 out of 10 - Frustrating and disappointing.