Apart from being completely and utterly mad, one senses that the rough-and-tumble riders who traverse the globe taking part in the World Superbike Championship are a tight-knit bunch of chaps. There’s a definite atmosphere of friendship and fun in the paddock; something which sets it apart from its counterpart Moto GP and in some sense Formula One, which these days go by the classic 1920’s saying ‘the right crowd and no crowding’, Heck, even if the racing itself wasn’t top-notch there would be plenty to like about WSBK, but the fact that pretty much every event turns into a belter is undoubtedly a further draw to fans worldwide.

I’ll hold my hands up right now and admit that the championship has slipped off my radar in the past half decade, though. The days of Carl Fogerty going handlebar-to-handlebar with Aaron Slight on their red Ducati and white Honda seem an age away, and with the greatest of respect to Neil Hodgeson and the like, the previous few seasons of World Superbike have seemed to lack something in terms of edge and prestige. There are signs however that the good times are rolling back, and it’s at this rather appropriate point in time that developers Black Bean and Milestone (developers of a clutch of Superbike games at the turn of the century) have strolled onto the scene with a brand new official game for series fans to get their teeth into.

Getting bike games right is a perilous task. On one hand you have the sim-heads who scream for realism and proper handling with proper penalties for overstepping the line. Whilst this is all well and good, the depressing sight of your bike cart wheeling into the gravel for the umpteenth time on your very first lap of proceedings is definitely not a way to draw in the majority of punters who want a fun, easy-to-learn arcade racer to allow them the opportunity of showing Troy Corser and James Toseland who is boss without wrist-snapping accidents getting in the way.

It’s on this delicate balancing act that the developers seem to have got it just about right. For the eager beginner and casual racer, early proceedings can be eased with a number of braking aids, stability control and slower opponents. In no way are things easy on this stage by any means; overstep the mark and you’ll still head off track or get things wrong, but a more forgiving experience it certainly is and you’ll have to do something spectacularly gash to end up sliding down the tarmac on your leather-clad arse. That didn’t stop me from managing it several times, of course. Still, you’ll find the early racing in SBK-07 a much more forgiving undertaking then any of the Moto GP games allowed.

If, on the other hand, you are a Moto GP series veteran with a good foundation in switching between front and rear braking to make your bike turn and slide in exactly the way you want it to, options are available for you to make the game as harsh as you could ever possibly want it to be. There’s even the option to turn on bike damage and rider injury, which obviously doesn’t show anything graphically (not that you’d really want to see a rider with his foot facing the wrong direction and the like), but will force you to retire from a race should you subject either or both to too much punishment.

Out on the circuit, control is initially rather tricky to get a proper handle on. The main issue that game has in this instance is rather particular to the hardware it is on, as using the right analogue stick for throttle and braking is not quite as natural as using a couple of triggers, and the option to switch the controls around so that the L1 and R1 buttons can do the job is hampered by the Dual Shock’s shoulder buttons having very little give. However, a little practice is all you need to start smoothing out your racing lines, and pretty soon it’ll be your opponents rather than your surroundings that’ll be occupying most of your attention. Despite initial misgivings the opponent AI proves itself to be rather competitive and intelligent, making blocking moves and overtaking manoeuvres amongst themselves and on you, whilst giving way if it’s a lost cause. They make their own mistakes too, which is always a good thing.

So, what’s the story in regards to the riders and circuits, then? All bikers certainly seem present and correct, with Messrs Toseland, Bayliss, Corser and Max ‘I swear I’m as good as Valentino Rossi’ Biaggi all piling in for some two-wheeled fun. The liveries too seem mostly accurate to their 2007 counterparts, which given the relatively short time since the start of the actual 2007 season is no mean feat. Somewhat curiously, not all of the 2007 circuits have been included and anyone particularly looking forward to racing around the Lausitzring (unlikely as that may be) or Imola are going to have pangs of disappointment when they find that both have failed to make the final cut. That being said, there’s still pretty reasonable representations of Brands Hatch, Phillip Island et all, each providing their own unique range of challenges.

Hold on second - ‘pretty reasonable’ representations of the circuits? Aficionados need not worry; Paddock Hill bend doesn’t bear left instead of right, and Magny Cours isn’t suddenly a majestic circuit of dips and crests. No, the problem with the circuits is purely graphical. Now, the PS2 is pretty old kit nowadays granted, and getting 22 bikes running around each circuit smoothly and with minimal loss of performance is a great achievement, but even taking that into account it’s fair to say that SBK-07 looks rather underwhelming. Trackside texturing is of a quality that is hard to even discern from some latter PS1 TOCA Touring Car games on occasion, and the bright, almost cartoon colours are rather garish on the eye.

This rather disappointing presentation is carried over to the menu system, which is incredibly awkward to navigate and backed by some pretty uninspiring tunes. In between the various menu options and the action itself the loading times chug away, leaving you twiddling your thumbs instead of burning rubber. Putting photos of some rather spectacular grid girls might stop you noticing all of this for the first few times, but eventually even the glamorous side of the sport fails to make up for the agonising pauses in the transition from menu to circuit.

Persevere through this and you’ll be rewarded with what is a fun and reasonably accessible racing title. With the standard Quick Race, Race Weekend and Championship modes available there’s plenty to do, and there’s also a Challenge Mode packed full of riding and racing ability tests that unlock some bonus content such as videos and the like. The game itself is peppered with some really rather lovely touches, such as the replay mode that allows you to watch a race you’ve recently competed in, or the highlights package that is generated after the event showing the crucial overtaking moves, crashes and such.

You warm to it, you really do. Initial exasperation at loading times and the rather plain graphics soon take on secondary importance to the racing, which itself is as nerve-jangling and rewarding an experience as you’d want as a bike racing fan. Despite the lack of a create-a-rider option and being rough around the edges, anyone with a passing interest in the sport or previous enjoyment with other games such as the Moto GP series would do well to look at this one. A niche title it may be, but it fills a hole in the market rather well indeed.