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Howdy Pardner! Seems the rodeo's comin' to town, and to git some respect round here, you're gonna have to beat those cotton-pickin' two-bit varmints in six of the toughest, roughest dog-gone events this side of Dodge City. You're gonna have to be good though, 'cos you'll be competin' against up to three of yer best buddies. Ride 'em cowboy!

Knife Throwing is the first event of the world's greatest Wild West display. Your beautiful young assistant is strapped to a rotating target, and a steady hand is needed to hurl your blade as close to her as possible without severing any major arteries.

Next comes Trick Shooting. You've got to blast away the bad guys as they pop out of the ground, taking care not to waste the innocent bystanders. Once you've shown off your skills with the stationary targets, a quick bout of bottle shooting rounds off the event - bottles are lobbed into the air and you must fragment them in mid-flight with your trusty six-shooter.

Calf Roping concentrates on your skill with the cowboy's mainstay, the lasso. Climb on your horse, chase the poor little cow. throw the noose round its neck, and pull it to a stop. Brace yourself in the saddle, or it'll be you who's taken for a ride.

You'll need a fine-tuned sense of balance when it comes to Bronco Riding and pitting your wits against a wild stallion. He's trying to throw you, so you'll have to balance just right to stay on for any length of time.

You have to take the bull by the horns in Steer Wrestling. Jump onto the back of a savage beast and force it into submission, wrestling it to the floor by the horns.

The show's grand finale is the Stage Coach Rescue. A coachload of upright citizens have been taken hostage by a Red Indian, and you must catch up with the speeding wagon, dodging luggage thrown down by the reckless redskin on the way. Leap from your horse onto the roof, and beat him senseless in a good old fashioned fist fight.

The game loads with the US national anthem playing merrily away and a picture of good ol' Buffalo Bill waiting for entrants to roll-up for the all-American extravaganza. Up to four players can join in the fun, each typing in their name, and selecting joystick or keyboard control mode. Slightly annoying for joystick users is the fact that the space bar on the keyboard has to be pressed frequently (this is especially frustrating on the. trick shooting section, where it's used to reload the gun). Once all this is done, and events chosen, the game loads in the first section.

All sections have their own tune, and all have impressive graphics. The gameplay is a bit on the simplistic side however, consisting either of basic hand-to-eye co-ordination or furious joystick waggling. Yet the competitive element when several people play at once makes it great fun. Each event can be played as many times as you like, so the final score can be doctored somewhat by replaying the individual sections until a near perfect score is obtained.

The game is a multi-loader, so tape-based users will have to endure several minutes of loading time per section - often longer than it takes to actually play the games themselves.

Buffalo Bill's Rodeo Games is fun for the first couple of goes, but it's not exactly going to keep you going for months on end. It may occasionally surface from your collection when you have a few mates round and you want something you can all play together though.

The attractive graphics and a thin veneer of gameplay disguise a multi-load bore.

50,000 points.

Loses its graphical appeal, which doesn't leave much else!

Graphics 86%
P. Beautifully drawn backdrops.

Sonics 75%
P. Different tune for each event.

Grab Factor 69%
P. Fun at first.

Staying Power 39%
N. Interest soon fades.
N. Tedious loading times for tape users.

Overall 61%
P. Nice to look at.
N. Becomes boring to play.