You also have two weapons buttons, although it's never made clear which weapons fire forward and which fire backward, or what the specific effect on the other cars is. There’s a button, for example, to ignite your car’s turbo booster, but no explanation as to what charges the booster (turns out that crashing into things does it). Gas Guzzlers' problems are compounded by the lack of clear explanation as to what does what when you play. Unlocking the combat portion, which is billed in the title, is infuriatingly difficult. But for a game that bills itself as a fun, arcade-ish, combat racing title, it's unacceptable. Slow progression isn't necessarily a bad thing, particular in a realistic racing simulation like Gran Turismo (though even that series allows you to earn money and buy new cars at the beginning). You play the same race over, and over, and over-never finishing above fourth or fifth and never getting anywhere near being able to even move on to the next track in the campaign, much less a different game mode.

But even if you do that, every single upgrade in the garage is locked to you, making it frustratingly difficult to make any progress through the game. You don't earn a dime, except by picking up money bonuses scattered at points on the racetracks.

But it's OK, because even when you lose, you still earn money to be able to slowly upgrade your car and take on the big boys, right? Wrong. The first time you start a race in Gas Guzzlers, you'll be in a crappy car, behind AI opponents in much better cars, and you'll lose.

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