Buggy Heat is a pretty average title that is difficult for all the wrong reasons- it's dreadful control system and poor graphics.

Buggy Heat is a game which centres around a sport which has become increasingly popular in the US and Australia- dune buggy racing. As you can imagine it shouldn't be long before the sport catches on over here in Europe, but until then those of us who can't wait any longer for some mad puke-inducing races over such terrains as sand, gravel, tarmac and snow can play Buggy Heat.<br> <br>Rather than stick to plain old souped-up roads cars like Speed Devils or Sega Rally 2, Buggy Heat features a selection of buggies and monster trucks driven by a rather unspectacular bunch of racers. After picking one and 'customising' your vehicle, by choosing one of three colours and a logo, you can race after skipping the intro sequence, which is pretty useless anyway. <br><br>The in-game buggies and courses are far from stylish, but you can at least tell what they're supposed to be- it's just that we already know the Dreamcast can do a lot better. Having your buggy's shadow glitch in and out of the view, or the wheels disappear into odd-looking clouds of dust that just isn't enough these days. The scenery's alright, but there are only a few occasions where you get to appreciate the kind of view distances that the Dreamcast can produce- there's even a hill in one race where you can see all the surrounding scenery and track below. But overall, Buggy Heat looks very plain and ordinary. <br><br>Alas, things don't sort themselves out once you get moving. Even at top speed, you rarely feel as if you've accelerated to third gear, which isn't a great sign for a racing game. As well as speed, corners are quite important features of good racers and Buggy Heat has plenty of them, but they're a right pain to get around in the oh-so-slow vehicles. You really want to swing into turns at full whack, but you're very rarely given the chance. Buggy Heat's courses are set over various countries ranging from the USA through to the wonder of France to the snowy areas of Russia. Each one brings a unique challenge to the game but there are some truly dumb track designs too with the chance to race around a massive, unmarked desert being the stupidest I've seen, ever. <br><br>I thought that a wide variety of terrain's would never be a big problem, most would see it as a plus side to the game, but Buggy Heat manages to make even this a problem. When you start to race, the grids are more often than not on tarmac or some other hard surface, but then suddenly you find yourself tyre-deep in sand. If you don't have your wits about you, this sudden change in terrafirma can cause you to spin 360 degrees and be rammed senseless by the competition. This is sometimes not a problem as you'll end up pointing back in the right direction. Although sometimes you will find yourself stuck up the side of the dune trying to turn back around whilst the opposing buggies have long since speeded over the horizon. <br><br>However, perseverance is the name of the game and if you practice for long enough, you learn to anticipate the odd sand dune that turns 90 degrees on itself, without ending up facing the way you came. When mastered it truly is an engaging ride, even when you hit the sand dune at the wrong angle and see your buggy flip right over. Such mishaps look very impressive in the replay. The camera doesn't just stick to exterior shots of the vehicle, it switches between rear, side and in-car shots where you can see the driver changing gear and turning the wheel accordingly. <br><br>Just when you begin to think that Buggy Heat was coded by a bunch of useless idiots, you notice that some thought has actually gone into this dreadful game with some features being quite interesting, such as the AI mode. As you play the game, the memory learns you driving style and saves it to VMU, updating it every time you play so that the game adapts to your driving characteristics. At any time, you can choose to load in your AI data and race against a virtual representation of yourself. This also means that you can load in your friend's data and see if all his boasting is true. It does take the machine a while to learn your techniques, so it's hard work at first as the program gets to know you. <br><br>Even better are Buggy Heat's online features. By clicking on the internet option in the main menu, you can access the Buggy Heat site where you can checkout the best times from around the world and upload yours directly from VMU. Also, it's possible to put your AI data on the site for other players to download. If you feel like a two player game but none of your mates are around, you can download a person's data from the site and virtually race against them. Nice, just as long as they've played enough to work up a decent profile of themselves. <br><br>For a different kind of racing game that is going to hold a challenge in order to master it, Buggy Heat is a pretty average title that is difficult for all the wrong reasons- it's dreadful control system and poor graphics. It's online features are the only saving grace but even they can't stop Buggy Heat being complete cack.<br></P>