The Simpsons Skateboarding (EA) For Sony PlayStation2. Price: £39.99. Out now - IT seems every time a great arcade game comes along, a Simpsons remake soon follows.

Sega released Crazy Taxi, where you had to race around town picking up fares and taking them to their destination within an allocated time limit. Then EA released Simpsons Road Rage, where you had to race around Springfield picking up characters from the TV show and taking them to their destination within an allocated time limit.

Activision's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series is up to its fourth episode, and now we've got The Simpsons Skateboarding.

Shameless isn't a word we'd use under the noses of Electronic Arts' lawyers, so we won't. The game is split into three modes - a Skillz School where you can practise your tricks and moves, the Timed Trick Contest where you can unlock new skaters by pulling off crazy aerials, and the central Skatefest mode, which lets you do just about anything else.

Here you have ten huge maps to skate through and unlock by completing a series of challenges in each location. Each area is based on a part of the Simpsons' universe, from the playground of Springfield Elementary to the radioactive waste-strewn environs of Burns' nuclear power plant.

Some challenges demand you collect the letters of a particular word, others have you tracking down people and objects or pulling a quantity of tricks in a certain time limit. The maps are well designed, full of skate furniture and hard-to-reach areas, and the Simpsons humour is in abundance, especially when you choose Homer as your reluctant boarder.

But take away the yellowness and you are left with Tony Hawk's Light. If you wish you'd been christened Bart, buy it today. But if it's skating you're after, there's still only one real option.

Rating: 71pc