With speeds in excess of 1000KM/h and lots of rockets flying about, this is not a game for the faint hearted. In fact, at that speed (which is very nicely portrayed - this baby is fast!), don't expect to do anything other than plow straight into the walls without practice. Fortunately, the difficulty level on this game is very nicely implemented - there are 5 levels (novice, amateur, expert, pro and redshift) and you cannot go beyond amateur until you complete the amateur mode, and so on.

The main difference with the increase in levels is the increase in speed - initially, you can't go much faster than 700KM/h - eventually, you'll nearly double that and by that stage, you had better be familiar with the track! In addition to the ramping up of the speed between difficulty levels, the opposition get nastier too - to start off with, you can expect to get through most stages without even being shot at. By "expert", however, you had better have spent at least a little money on your shields - they are going to hunt you down and kill you, to stop you beating them.

At the start of each race, you get a certain amount of turbo boost and a certain sized space to store weapons, with a set amount of shield. To upgrade the maximum amounts of each of these, you need to buy upgrades - using money you earn while racing. The options are pretty simplistic but a welcome touch - you can definitely lean to a more agressive player, a faster player or a more conservative player simply by selecting which order you upgrade your craft. While it does add a little depth, it's only a little. Fun, but the ability to choose your weapons or paint your craft or other such upgrades would have been even cooler.