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After the success of the sports simulation game Track 'N Field, Konami released Hyper Sports which also turned out to be extremely popular with arcade fanatics all over the world. Now, courtesy of Imagine, the official version of Hyper Sports has been released for the BBC. You know you're in for a treat when, as soon as the disc is booted, you are greeted with an absolutely amazing rendition of the theme music from Chariots of Fire.

Hyper Sports is in fact a series of six mini-games so I'll go through them one by one. The first event is swimming. Your man is competing against three other fit-looking swimmers and with the sound of the gun, gets off to a good start with a strong kick. Then you must pound away at two keys as fast as you can in order to make him "swim", but of course, he has to breathe, so wait for the prompt (which appears as a speech bubble) and press the fire button. If you breathe at the wrong time, your poor swimmer will swallow water and slow down. If you forget to make him breathe, he will drown. You don't actually need to win the race, but you must finish inside the qualifying time.

The second event is skeet shooting. Your gunman has a double-barreled shot-gun. Computer guided sights move swiftly up and down the screen as the skeets fly past in a gentle arc across the sky. You have to press the fire button at just the right moment. Bonus points are given for good shooting.

The third (and as far as I am concerned, the most difficult) even if the Long Horse. The computer guides your little gymnast up to the springboard and you have to press the fire button in order to make him spring onto the horse, and press it again to somersault into your routine. When the gymnast is in the air, you must press the left and right keys rapidly to make him perform as many somersaults as possible. And of course, landing properly is important. Points scored depend on the distance and the number of somersaults achieved.

Assuming you have survived the Long Horse, you compete in archery. The target moves across the field and you must judge wind speed and the angle of your shot to hit the bullseye. Pressing the Fire button will rapidly increment the counter representing the height of your shot. The arrow is actually fired when the fire button is released.

The next event is the triple jump. Again, you pound away at the left and right control keys to make your man run as fast as he can, and near the take off line press the fire button. For each part of the jump, keep the fire button pressed to increase the angle of the trajectory and release as close to 45 degrees as possible. Your score is a combination of the correct speed, angle and distance.

The final and the most physically exhausting event is weight lifting. Pound away at the left and right control keys as usual to increase the lifting power, and press the fire button when weight flashes to give power-lift. Continue with power until all three judges acknowledge the feat.

When and if you complete all these events, you go back to the beginning of the cycle with even more challenging qualifying times, distance, etc.

As you would expect from a Konami original, the game's concept cannot be faulted. Almost most of the hidden features of the original have been lost during the conversion, in all the events, the graphics are first class. Well-defined characters, careful use of colours and varied background scenery add up to a very professionally produced, exciting and challenging game. But do remember, this is a review of the disc version where each event is loaded off disc. I haven't yet tried a tape version so do insist on a demo of the game if you do not possess a disc drive. If you do, I would not hesitate in recommending this game. I have never given a set of such high marks to a game (apart from Elite).

Shingo Sugiura