The premier class of motorcycle racing has been the subject of video games since the mid-1980s, but the rise of popularity of Grand Prix racing in the MotoGP era has gone hand in hand with the increasing sophistication of video games

Top Ten Motorcycle Video games No.5: MotoGP

One of the great enticements in video games is to play as our heroes and no series of motorcycling games does that better than the MotoGP series.

The MotoGP series started in 2000 but there were games based on the world championship before that. However, the rising popularity of MotoGP in the 21st century went hand in hand with the massive improvements in computer gaming: every year, the racing got better in reality and in virtual reality.

Being able to play as your favourite rider was an interesting way of re-writing history: a rider who was unsuccessful in real life could, all of a sudden, be winning races and championships.

If you have the patience, the best way of playing these games is in career mode, starting out in the lower classes and working your way up to the premier class, winning machinery and rider skill upgrades along the way. To improve your skills before entering championships, you can ride in time trial mode to help you get used to the way the bikes respond to the controls.

To pick one out of the 19 thus far would be difficult so the only way to choose would be to say get the most recent one you can: the graphics will be as good as they can be and the game play will be all the more sophisticated.