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With the long cold winter nights drawing in (as opposed to the short cold summer nights) Epyx have released The Games, a winter sports simulation rather similar to Winter Games (also by Epyx). So is this the kind of thing to get you rushing home, closing those curtains and getting down to a good old session on the CPC?

You begin with a standard menu: compete in all events, compete in some events, compete in one event, practice an event, and change controls. It can also display the opening and closing ceremonies (it helps if you play before selecting closing ceremonies!). Now wait for the next stage...

After the wait comes the pretty but also pretty pointless opening ceremony, followed closely by the actual selecting of the names of your competitors. Up to eight people can compete and can choose their nationalities from a choice of seventeen countries ranging from Austria to West Germany via Japan (?) and Mexico (!).

After the preliminaries we reach the events themselves: Luge, Downhill, Slalom, Speed Skating, Figure Skating, Cross-Country and, my favourite, the Ski Jump.

No disagreement here, folks: this is Winter Games II and no mistake. Of course the loading problems mentioned above are only on the tape version; for 464 owners it's something to bear in mind.

OK.

Graphics 66%
P. Good backdrops, as with all Epyx sports games.
N. Luge looks a little odd.

Sonics 57%
P. Some good tunes.

Grab Factor 64%
P. Compete against up to seven other players.
N. Aren'tcha just fed up of winter sporting games?

Staying Power 56%
P. Seven events.

Overall 59%
Good, but Winter Games is better.