This reviewer still remembers his first go on Sega Rally in the arcades, all those years ago. Graphically it made for compelling viewing, but behind the wheel the actual handling was rather shocking. Whether driving on tarmac, mud, grass - whatever the surface - it felt like you were sliding about on ice. Corners were taken by power-sliding around them, and the fine steering and counter-steering adjustments you had to constantly make were tricky to master.

In this Xbox 360 incarnation, the game still revolves around the power-slide; quite clearly it wouldn't be Sega Rally if this were stripped away. However, these days the handling is somewhat more forgiving, and that rather over-the-top sensation of ice skating has been replaced by some more solid steering dynamics. It's still a challenge to master the art of cornering, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

And it's also quite a challenge to work your way through the main championship mode. To progress from the amateur league to the pro, then expert and the final, it's necessary to score very highly in the various events. The different tracks boast some testing corners, but they're kept fairly fast and free-flowing in the main, and flying over jumps at top speed while trying to keep your line into an upcoming chicane is nothing if not adrenaline pumping.

If there's a weakness here it's on the content front, as the championship mode isn't particularly extensive and it tends to have you racing the same tracks over and over again in the quest to perfect them. Now that's fine for the perfectionists out there, but less patient drivers might find this philosophy somewhat frustrating.

There's also a time trial mode in which you can attempt to better other players' best laps on Xbox Live, and multiplayer racing on Live too (along with a split-screen option for two-player head-to-head). However, that's pretty much your lot.

One element of Sega Rally that certainly hasn't changed is its graphical quality. In full High Definition this is a beast of a game to behold. The diverse environments are superbly rendered, from lush tropical islands to snowy alpine mountains.

But it's the extra touches of detail that make the game, such as the realistic way the rally car gets slowly caked in mud (which is washed off when you splash through water). Or the jets that zoom past on a low flight path in one of the canyon levels.

The sound effects are excellent too. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of the music, which is cheesier than an explosion in a Wotsits factory.

Arcade-style rally driving has never looked so good, and power-sliding around Sega Rally's breakneck set of tracks is thoroughly entertaining. The championship mode feels a little thin, however, and we'd have liked to see some more expansive, meatier options on the single player front.