Not many people enjoy tennis, skiing, motorbike racing and killing people, but that's what's on offer in this compilation from French softies, Microids.

Andre Agassi had better look to his laurels. A hot new tennis superstar is in town and he's going to take on all comers in the competition of the century.

Actually, you start off ranked 100th out of 103 in the world, which still makes you better than Jeremy Bates. It's a tough old world isn't it?

Advantage Tennis is the old Infogrames' hit and is still one of the best tennis games you can get for your ST. You and another human player are offered a choice of practice, championship or exhibition matches around the world, culminating in a nail-biting final.

Your chap can be controlled with either the joystick or the keyboard and movement around the court is straightforward. Your ST opponents are so good though, that even the most adept tennis player is going to have problems reaching some of the volleys. The tennis sprites are well animated and move very realistically, although the backgrounds are a bit samey. Sound-wise the game has got some great samples and digitised speech which add to the realism. Overall, Advantage Tennis is a real winner.

It's motorbike mania in ST Format this month, first No Second Prize on the Cover Disk, then Hot Rubber on page 74, and now Grand Prix 500 2.

Sad to say, but Grand Prix 500 2 is actually Hot Rubber in another guise. Apart from the different title screens, the games are exactly the same in every respect. Turn to page 74 for the full review.

Grand Prix 500 2/Hot Rubber is a pretty average bike racing sim and is no match for No Second Prize.

2005AD. It's not very far off now, is it? But, by then the world is going to be such a mess that we'll have turned to the violent sport of Killerball to satisfy our bloodthirsty desires. Sounds realistic!

Killerball takes place in a huge circular arena between teams of five men on roller skates. A steel ball is shot out into the arena and each team has to do whatever's necessary to score a goal and prevent its opponents from doing the same. The winning team is the one which has scored most goals or has the most surviving members.

You start off in the Minor League, but graduate to the Major League and Elite as you gain experience. Your ultimate aim is to be awarded the coveted Killerball International Cup.

Gameplay is fast and furious as you tear around the track trying to place the ball in the small hidey-hole laughingly called a goal. Not only do you have to contend with your opponents' unwelcome advances, but you can only score a goal when the red goal light is illuminated.

If you find the ST opponents too difficult to beat, then up to eight human players can take part instead, with two players facing each other at the same time. Killer Ball has some neat sprites, but staring at the same portion of the track all the time does your head in after a while. In one-player mode your ST opponents ultimately provide little in the way of excitement and you end up feeling rather uninvolved and uninspired. The copyright protection is also in French, so get those phrasebooks out.

Skiing attracts all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons - a favourite has to be sharing a bottle of schnapps with a voluptuous ski instructress in front of an open fire. That and wearing a dayglo kagoule without getting laughed at. With Super Ski II you get just six different events - Downhill, Slalom, Giant Slalom, Ski Jumping, Hot Dog and Bobsleigh, with up to four human players taking part in each sport.

Before you start each event, you're given the opportunity to practise and, boy, do you need it. The control mechanism for each event is different and you need to have quite a few attempts to get to grips with it and actually getting it right before you launch yourself into the full blown Olympic competition stage.

The events themselves are great fun, especially the Bobsleigh and Slalom, with large, well animated sprites and an unusual view of the action - in the Ski Jumping you see your character zoom down the jump towards you. The sound effects are good and the music is funky enough to go down a storm at your local rave.

However, once you've mastered each event, Super Ski II is unlikely to provide any long-term interest. Time for that schnapps.

Unusually for a compilation, Action Sport actually contains some reasonably good games, especially Advantage Tennis and Super Ski II, which make the £29.99 retail price worth paying for. There's more than enough quality here to keep the avid sports fan happy, but it's a shame there's no footy sim.

At last someone has brought out a compilation worth stumping up £30 for.

None of the games on Action Sport has a long shelf life.