It seems like everything can be turned into a videogame these days. With Grooverider: Slot Car Thunder you can now race those construction kit slot car tracks on your cube.Finish the tracks with your volt driven car model and avoid booby traps by switching grooves and move over turbo streams to get some extra boost. The whole concept is plain and simple; just a funny arcade racer with flavors of the Mario Kart games. You can pick up items underway such as a manually controlled turbo boost or a missile to knock your opponents out of the track. Sounds familiar huh?

Grooverider can be played up to 4 players simultaneously or just play against the computer in arcade or championship mode. To complete the usual race ingredients there is also a time trial mode which obviously needs no further explanation. For backgrounds some funny locations have been brought into the game such as a children's bedroom or the kitchen where daddy's beer bottle can end your pole position and your victory for the race. Visually it isn't exactly a piece of art with low polygon race models and bland surroundings, but it doesn't take away the fun that this game has to offer.

The difficulty level has been categorized in volts; 3, 6, and 9 volts where the higher volt setting indicates a more challenging level, although you will have your hands full on the standard 3 volt mode, it's trickier than you think.

For replay value the developers came up with the idea to unlock most of the features, such as other cars, tracks and even the difficulty setting. It's a clever plan to compensate the limited gameplay that Grooverider has to offer, giving it a little more life this way, and it probably works.

This game shows that simplistic gameplay can be very addictive and that in order to have fun you don't necessarily need dazzling visuals or complex game structures. The American retail price has been set to a price of $20. If the European gamers will get this privileged budget price remains to be seen, but if it does, it might be fun to pick this one up.