There was so much potential with Viz. Great subject material. Plenty of character (*ahem*). It's therefore almost unbearable that the game turned out to be crap. Almost. I must make it clear that unlike other nominees in this section (this being the Complete Waste of a Licence Award), Viz doesn't follow the norm by totally ignoring the expensive licence. It soaks up as much of the original source as possible. The irony is that the game still ends up being crap though. *ahem*.

The basic idea is that three of the cast of Viz are competing in a charity race across town. Like in most races, there's only one winner. It's not you. Why? As with all paranoid delusions, the game is Out To Get You. Let me explain. You choose your character (either Buster Gonad, Biffa Bacon and Johnny Fartpants), which then allows you to play a subgame.

The subgame is a joystick wagger, whereby you try and gain tokens. Each token provides your chosen character with a special power, usable in the main game. All sounds reasonable. Except you don't necessarily end up playing the subgame which relates to your character. And Biffa Bacon has more subgames than the other two. And the subgames aren't very good either. Click here to view a montage of some of the subgames.

Even worse than the subgames, is the fact that the special powers you get from them are rubbish. Whilst it's somewhat amusing watching Johhny Fartpants fart across the screen (etc), there is no real practical benefit in using the powers. This then makes the subgames completely redundant. The main game - the race - seems great in theory (like the whole game in fact) but in practice is frustratingly annoying. Which is never a Good Thing. Unlike games which are annoying, but have enough 'give' to keep you interested, Viz doesn't. Keep you interested, that is.

The first level - as that's what you'll see most of - isn't particularly long or difficult to navigate. What makes the game untenable are the 'outside infuences'. These take the form of your fellow competitors and several other obstacles. These include the Parkie and faecies-dropping birds (in level one - you get kamikaze grannies in level two).

Unlike regular enemies or obstacles that you would come across in other games, these aren't avoidable or even beatable. The Parkie will come after any one of the three runners and catch you. You can't avoid him if he turns his attention on you. Bang goes another life.

There are other obstacles. For example, there are bridges to cross; the other runners will deliberately wait for you and knock you off it. Or if you bang into some static scenery - which does happen - you'll lose a life. Rather unfair, if you ask me. Also, the other two runners have variable speeds. This would not be a problem if the game kept your opponents' speed at a consistent level. You can be over a screens' width ahead of either of the other contestants and suddenly the game will remember this. Your opponents will suddenly gain warp-speed capabilities and manage to overtake you, quicker than you can say "rubbish game". This tends to happen as you're approaching the level finish line.

Remember; you playing a game to win a race. In order to progress onto the next level you have to come first. Understandable, really. Combine this with those cheating opponents and you're not likely to cross the line first. You'd expect the contestants in Viz to cheat, to an extent, but you should be able to. There aren't any shortcuts you can take. You can't even knock the others off the bridges - although they can to you. A bit crap, if you ask me.

As I said in the first paragraph, there was so much potential for a game based around the Viz characters. The graphics are great - you can easily tell who is who, even in the monochromatic levels. The ideas behind the subgames are spot on, keeping within the spirit of the magazine. You even get a 'top tip' every now and again. The bleepy, chaotic tune which plays throughout the main game somehow seems appropriate.

Normally, this would ingratiate me to a game. Indeed, at first I quite liked the game. However, for the first couple of times I played Viz, I thought that it was me making mistakes. That it was my fault that I kept on losing lives. Then I kept on playing. And playing (all for review purposes, not because I really liked it). Until I realised that it wasn't my gamesplaying skills at fault. The problem was with Viz.

The style of the game - a right-to-left scroller - is similar to games like Metrocross or Shockway Rider, but this nowhere near as good as either of them. The implementation is poor, with what seems like only half a thought to what would make an enjoyable game. A Viz (the game) fan could argue that turning such a licence into a playable game would prove difficult.

I'd counter-argue by saying that (a) Virgin shouldn't have bothered in the first place or (b) should have got Core to produce the game. This is based on what they created for Virgin with the Monty Python licence. That game was a difficult license to produce a [good] game from. But they did. Produce a good game, that is.

Again, the result is 'nice graphics, shame about the game'. (And I didn't even mention anything about the gratuitous swearing or the fact that the game box says "You'll never buy a bigger pile of crap").