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The name itself makes things quite clear. Gremlin are going for the throats of those who've "waited-for-the-compilation-'cos-you-get-more-for-your-money" brigade. Four of their biggies are included here, ranging from the excellent to the not-at-all-bad.

You've got a nice red Lotus capable of 160mph here. What are you going to do with it? Well, there aren't any Essex Girls around to impress, so you'd better race it against nineteen other Lotuses which don't seem to go quite as fast.

Turbo Challenge caused a fair fuss when it appeared, because it was smooth, fast and very playable. It still is, of course. Time has removed some of its shine, but it remains a "must own". You race on up to fifteen increasingly tough circuits one after the other, trying to qualify on each.

You can choose your control method, use the correct racing lines and generally do everything properly (such is Turbo Challenge's quality) and you can even race a chum with the split-screen mode. It works very well, and many hours of fun can well be had from it.

Oh dear. Silliness seems to be the best way of getting another scrolly shoot-'em-up platformer into the limelight. Luckily, in the case of James Pond, there's a very playable game behind the dreadful fishy jokes. You swim around twelve levels collecting objects with which to save the day.

It's tricky, owing to the underwater control method, and looks very pretty indeed. There is a huge variety of baddies and, er, other things to meet, with plenty of secret caverns dotted around and mysterious objects begging to be tried out.

The James Bond mickey-tale is carried on throughout the game, and adds to what is already a great piece of software. (There. Not a fishy pun in sight, thank cod.)

Another above-average shoot-'em-up. This time you're an insect-eating plant. Or rather a metallic fly named after one. You're after swarms of mutant flies who, instead of looking for dung or juicy butter pats to nosh, have decided to take over the world. Getting rid of them is a tall order but thanks to cybernetics (phew!) you're the ultimate killer.

There are ten worlds, each with five levels to explore. The game is, therefore, rather large and time-consuming. Like James Pond, there are dozens of collectables and loads of extra weapons available to the brave and the lucky. As you trundle through the levels, you face plenty of nicely drawn opposition from the understandably annoyed flies.

Venus The Flytrap is a tough game to get far in, but it's a lot of fun for a rainy afternoon and it's got that magic just-one-more-go element.

Suitably clad in armour, you wander from left to right, throwing knives at coach-loads of undead folk issuing forth from the bowels of the earth.

Ghouls 'N Ghosts is a traditional - if not old-fashioned - game which sets you the task of going as far to the right as you can before losing all your armour and running around in a loin-cloth, before finally turning into a skeleton and collapsing.

There are plenty of platforms to climb onto, chests containing more efficient weapons and other enticements, but, unless you're really into simple scrollers, Ghouls 'N Ghosts will wear you down until you yearn for the dreamless eternity of death.

Chart Attack is an excellent compilation. Ghouls 'N Ghosts is the weakest of them, and that's actually worth a few plays. If you haven't got James Pond and Lotus Challenge, you should get it for those two. The other games are bonuses really.

1. Four playable games, two and a half of which are really jolly good.
2. It's arcade action all the way, so don't expect your brain to be taxed at the highest rate.