The Italian Job: Un trabajo en Italia

I purchased this on Playstation when it came out because I knew the movie was a great classic of British cinema and the back cover made it look like a promising spin-off.

Unfortunately I was immediately put off. Everything about this reeks of cash-in. The menus are annoying and distracting. The controls are awkward, the vehicles have no special manuevers and basically that just makes it a very straightforward racing game. It's very hard to adapt to and just becomes frustrating. The enjoyability of the gameplay itself is nonexistent and the whole movie tie-in is forced and annoying.

It also features an unbearably bad imitation of Michael Caine's cockney accent that sounds NOTHING like him. Not a big deal, but it's just another reason to consider this a poorly produced video game. The graphics are as bad as the gameplay itself.

You are Charlie Croker. You must put together a job to rob an armoured car full of gold on the streets of Turin. To do this you must go through many missions that range from stealing an armoured car to picking up girls to get the professor on board to driving through the streets of Turin itself.

I've played this on Playstation but I know it's on several formats. The basic idea is nothing special - essentially it's a driving game, nothing more. If you hate driving games then this isn't for you. However it's really spiced up by the Italian Job connection. All the missions are related to the film in some way and are introduced and narrated by a really good Michael Caine impression! Even the song `self preservation society' plays beneath the action as you go! This raises the mood of the game as many people love the film and it's fun to be part of it.

The graphics in the Playstation aren't great but the missions are well set out - although it does get very hard quite early on and takes practice. The various moods are good too - if you just want to drive around and avoid police then you can do that too with no clock or reason!

Overall this would be a pretty good game without the movie connection. With the connection it becomes even better! The action is spot on, the missions fit with the film really well and the music is a perfect lift. Even when you crash and burn you can't help but feel amused!