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Champions contains three games, each featuring the kind of sport you can't be bothered to actually play yourself. Are the games themselves "champions"? or are they "not very good at all"? Step into the pongy, echoing changing rooms to find out.

3D isometric squash court views ahoy! You take the place of the immortal JK in - er, an awful lot of squash games. First you train, practise and beat the club-level people, then you get hammered by the pros.

Select your level and enter the court. Waggle your joystick in the general direction of the ball and - hey presto! - you're a squash master.

Graphics and sound are really neat. It's smooth, fast and you can't take your eyes off the ball. Getting used to the weird 3D through-the-wall view is a bit tough, but if you persevere, you can tell your chums that you persevered. It's well worth it - as long as you like squash - and it's a real challenge.

It's okay. You're just the Manager. Your face is safe. Anyway, here you acquire a "stable" of lads who fight if you pay them money. Train them, arrange money-spinning deals, drive a ridiculous car and grow a very attractive Don King hairstyle. It's all here.

Slideshow graphics and clicking icons are the order of the day, with no views of the pugilists themselves when the fights actually happen - you do see the commentators though. Phew.

World Championship Boxing Manager is basically a poor management sim with a couple of animated screens. There are no shiny black shorts, upper-cuts or dented four-wheel drive vehicles. It's a pity, because a decent fight sequence would have improved the game no end.

Don't know that this is doing in a Champions compilation (ha ha). It's a cross between a management game and Kick Off. As such, it doesn't really succeed too well at either - well, the management bit is pretty much par for the course.

Everything is icon-driven and you can flick through the screens with the minimum of faff - great if you just want to hit the pitch, as it were. The game itself is vieweed from a standard commentary box. This looks okay, but the implied 3D can mess with your perfectly executed banana shots - at least until you get used to it. Control isn't that good, compared to Kick Off, but it's quick and frantic. And what more could you want of a footy sim?

The players you select, how you train them and how fit they are does actually affect your performance on the pitch, but mostly it's down to you bungling every ball that drifts anywhere near you. The best option is to select two-player mode and enjoy being not-very-good with another warm, caring human being.

Jahangir Khan is a lot of fun, and Manchester United might collectively tickle your fancy, but Boxing certainly won't knock you out (Sorry). If you're a sports fan, you get a fair mix of management and action here. On the other hand, it's probably be much better for you if you went outside and actually participated in some real sport before your legs fall off.

1. A varied bag, well, cardboard board. Jahangir and Manchester are the ones to go for, though.
2. One more sporty game wouldn't have gone amiss - or perhaps it did.