Needless to say, Pac-Man Rally (released everywhere else on the planet-sphere as Pac-Man World Rally) doesn't exactly arrive dripping with the sweet sticky honey of anticipation. Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be Mario Kart Katamari's Prince is just one of several Namco characters waiting to be unlocked. Let that thought roll around in your brain for a moment. Hell, there was even a Woody Woodpecker racing game. There's probably at least a hundred more yet. Off the top of my handsomely proportioned head, we've been 'blessed' with kart racers featuring Looney Tunes, South Park, Antz, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Bomberman, Crash Bandicoot, Diddy Kong, The Beano and Crazy Frog. From our vantage point in 2007 the kart racing sub-genre has been sullied beyond repair by a parade of shockingly lazy knock-offs, pasting famous brands into tiny cars with wanton disregard for the nuances that made Mario's outing so damn great.

Thanks to the voracious commercial gullet of the games boar, that freshness and innovation didn't last long. Hard to imagine now, but back then the very idea of a famous platform character taking the wheel of a dinky go-kart was fresh and innovative. But more than that was the genre-hopping freedom it heralded. Obviously, there was the addictive glee of a beautifully realised and devilishly silly racing game, the sense of witnessing the arrival of a classic. I still remember what it was like when Super Mario Kart first came out, back in 1992.

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