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Now I'll freely admit that I'm not massively into strategy games, but having picked this up in one of the recent indie bundles, I thought I'd give it a go. If ever there was a game that threw up barriers to introducing people to the strategy genre, this would be it. I get that strategy games are often complex, but when the tutorial involves reading screeds of text, going through numerous pages of options and ten minutes later, you finally get to see the battle take place? I'm sure the hardcore strategy nuts are frothing at the mouth reading this already, but from someone who wanted to see what all the fuss was about, I'll try and find a more accessible entry into the genre.

With my racing heritage in the Burnout series on the PS2 and more recently Burnout Paradise and NFS : Hot Pursuit on the PC, I wasn't sure what I was getting into with Ignite. Having just purchased for $10 in the Steam Christmas sale and seeing the game was in the 'Indie' section, I thought that any game for the price of two coffees couldn't be that bad... and I was right! Ignite isn't going to set the world on fire with stylish, Burnout-esque crash sequences or NFS : The Run narratives, but it delivers in the racing, and that's what matters. The handling of the cars takes a little getting used to (especially if you come from one of the aforementioned games), but once you do, the game is excellent fun. The graphics and the sound surpass my expectations of a $10 game, but the real treat comes from the game's core strategy mechanic. Your score increases throughout the race from various maneuvers, such as drifting, drafting or driving into the various items laid across the track. Once you reach the 1,000 point threshold, you can then trade off score for nitro boost. While this may sound like an easy decision to make, the kicker comes at the end of the race when your remaining score is deducted from your finishing time to give a final time. This can mean that even though you place further down the field in the race, with a high enough score, you can win the race anyway! It's an interesting twist that makes you careful about how you 'spend' your score during a race. I really enjoyed Ignite for the price and, as an indie title, I hope that the now the race has begun, that it continues.

Difficult without being frustrating, pinpoint-accurate controls and all-round retro platforming awesomeness. Don't stress over it, just give it a chance and you'll be engrossed!