Nostalgia sells. And trails upcoming movies.

A red Ford Gran Torino with a white swoosh down either side. TV culture has produced few more iconic cars, although there are a few contenders – KITT in Knight Rider, the General Lee in The Dukes Of Hazzard, Del Boy's yellow Robin Reliant. As soon as the Starsky & Hutch game begins you get a rush of nostalgia when the cartoony version of the Gran Torino – aka, The Tomato – cruises by on-screen.

The original Starsky & Hutch TV series ran from 1975 to 1979. But, despite decades of repeats, it's not exactly fresh in the consciousness. That's where the game comes in. It both reinvigorates the characters and brand, and updates them into a contemporary form.

This form is, of course, a chasing and shooting-based video game. And, although Starsky & Hutch has passing similarities to Driver, The Getaway and Grand Theft Auto, it's actually defined more by a light-hearted take on nostalgia about the TV series, its characters and its essence. This means that, in the format of “episodes”, you get to chase bad guys round the streets of Bay City with Hutch leaning out of the car blasting away.

You can even perform stunts – the more you achieve, the higher your Viewer Rating (bore the audience with humdrum driving or let the baddies elude you and it drops to zero – failure). You can even combine controllers, steering wheels and lightguns. Cool.

However, not only does the game give a dose of naff/hip nostalgia, its revival of the brand is also timely in raising awareness for the new movie. Yup, like so many TV series before it, Starsky & Hutch is getting the Hollywood remake treatment. CPT Holdings Inc, the owner of the brand has licensed it to Empire Interactive for the video game and presumably to Warner Bros for the new movie, starring Ben Stiller as Starsky and Owen Wilson as Hutch. It's been said before, but nostalgia really is big business. Daniel Etherington 25 July 03

Starsky & Hutch is available now for PS2, Xbox and PC.