Videogame industry annoraks will best know Bethesda as a studio for their hugely successful role playing games such as Fallout and Elder Scrolls, but the publishers are venturing into new territory next week with the releas of Wheelspin, a futuristic arcade-racer!

On the surface Wheelspin is probably best described as Wipeout-with-wheels, as take a seat behind the wheel of an aerodynamic motor vehicle and go head to head with other racers on a wide variety of gravity defying, twisty and sometimes very awkwardly designed tracks – all at frantic speed, and also whilst trying to stop your opponents with a crazy array of weaponry all conceiled under your bonnet somehow.

WHEELSPIN TRAILER

One thing that Wheelspin does have over the classic Wipeout games is the level of colour saturation on display – the vehicles, tracks and intergalactic settings are vibrant and colourful, but not on a day-glo level that burns your eyes after just five minutes of playing – a good balance is found to ensure the game retains your attention.

If you’ve played Mario Kart on the Nintendo Wii then controlling your vehicle won’t be a problem as it’s all done in the same way in Wheelspin, but you do need to be a little more aware as everythng happens much faster here and instead of red turtles coming your way, it’s huge missiles or devestating bolts of lightning.

Wheelspin hits stores next week for the Nintendo Wii, and is also being released under the name SpeedZone in the United States.