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The people who brought you Summer Games I and II, not to mention Winter Games, in a stunningly bold and creative move, now bring you World Games!

The game takes you on a whistle-stop tour of the world touching down at eight locations as far afield as Scotland, Russia and Mexico.

As with its predecessors, World Games relies on professional production and slick graphics. But the formula is beginning to wear a little thing.

Although the graphics are undoubtedly pretty, and some of the events fun to play, others quickly become boring and are, quite frankly, an insult to anyone who can get past the "wooden" level in Uridium!

Barrel Jumping is a case in point. Set in Germany, this event involves skaters competing to jump over the most barrels in a single attempt. By moving your joystick left and right, accelerate your skater towards a line of barrels and press fire to jump into the air.

Then pull down on the joystick just as your skater is about to land. When long jump and speed skating came out in earlier Epyx sports games that was one thing, but barrel jumping is purely a combination of the two, set against a slightly different backdrop.

The average gamester in this country deserves something a little more "radical" before parting with £25, even if there are eight different vents on this two disk set.

There is no doubt, though, that devoted Epyx sports fans will still find things in World Games to ooh and aah about, and the game is not without its good points.

But I think, for most people, this theme is getting a little tired and Epyx do seem to be squeezing the very last drop out of the recent craze of sports simulation.

One of these is that is less likely to have your trusty joystick cringing in the corner as only three of the eight events - Caber Tossing and Barrel Jumping, and Log Rolling - rely to any large degree on "stick waggling", and, in the case of Log Rolling, more skill and less blind speed is required to keep your man from falling off the log.

Although difficult to get the hang of, Bull Riding is also good fun, offering enough variation to keep you coming back for more bruises! Having chosen which bull you want to ride, you find yourself astride more than 2,000 lbs of muscle whose sole aim in life is to get you off his back!

Using the joystick to offset the bucking and spinning of the bull, you score points for style and length of ride. The more ferocious the bull, the higher your points tally will be, if you stay on that is!

Another nice touch here is the practice mode which allows you to control the actions of the bull so you can get used to dealing with its various movements.

Other events in the package will find you weightlifting with our Russian comrades, diving off a Mexican cliff, on the Piste in Chamonix France for a spot of slalom, and Sumo wrestling with 400 lbs of Japanese blubber - a sort of Way Of The Exploding Waistline!

The ST game is an enhanced version of the C64 version currently getting rave reviews in the Commodore mags. Maybe ST owners expect more?

Although World Games has its high points, it is to be hoped that the undoubtedly talented programmers at Epyx don't go the same way as the Ultimate group who languished in the doldrums of creative stagnancy for so long after having been at the top of the tree. Come on Epyx. Even Stallone gave up after Rocky IV!