More divine intervention, gothic Faery tales, Ninjas and tennis to boot. Who says CU is variety shy? It wasn't the vicar, that's for sure. Most of them highly rated, there are games here for everyone.

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Hiding away in the back of the mind of yer average Populous player is the thought, "I've conquered this universe and been pronounced invincible, but it just isn't enough. I need more people, more power, more land..." Here's you chance.

The promised lands: Block Word, Lego land, Lego people and very Legoey death. Silly Land, where you improve your score by destroying buildings; Wild West Land, with its cowboys and Indians; the French Revolution complete with guillotines, and Bit Land - your user-friendly computer world. All this for a tenner? Blimey vicar!

An excellent good value package with all the thrills, spills, tears, bloodshed and creation of the original, portrayed in a slightly more light-humoured way. A definite purchase for anybody who bought and enjoyed the original Populous.

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Some of you may not be old enough to remember when this one came out. I know I'm not. Of course, now it's a bit cheaper. Faery Tale cost almost 50 quid first time around - but in all honesty, I think I can safely say it was worth it. And now, at the mere ship of £19.95 it's a must.

Faery Tale is packaged with all the usual garb, and so an arcade adventure of this sort should be. And what an arcade adventure it is. Eight-way-scrolling, with a map size of 100 screens by 140 screens, it proved so big even Mark "I can finish that" Patterson had difficulty completing it. The only thing I can think of to even rival it would be Times Of Lore, and if you've seen Times Of Lore, let me tell you that Faery Tale is every bit as good.

Obviously the graphics on the C64 version aren't quite as high detailed or as distinctive as those on the Amiga; but that doesn't stop it from being a highly playable and involving romp. I love it to bits, and it looks like I'm going to love it for quite a while yet.

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After the slightly disappointing Amiga conversion, the C64 version is a much closer and a much more playable incarnation. Play the same warrior Ninja with amazing powers, and do battle against some evil lord and his minions.

The scrolling is pixel smooth, and so it should be, for wasn't the C64 designed to scroll? The sprites are very well-defined, as are the backdrops, and together they easily capture the spirit of the arcade game. The sound's all there too, minus the in-game tune, but it is a C64.

Jumping between levels is activated by holding down the fire button and pressing up. Easy enough, except your Ninja doesn't jump until you centre the joystick; quite often it just doesn't work, and in a position when timing is crucial, this does slow you down a bit. If they could just correct that little playability bug, it would be a better conversion.

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Passing Shot claims on the packaging to be "the most accurate simulation... to appear". As far as I'm concerned that's a contravention under the Trades Description Act. Sega's arcade game had a major design fault in that it transfers the view rapidly from a straight on, observer's position to an overhead one. Imageworks conversion takes the problem from bad to worse by making the screen scroll back so slowly that when it reveals the back of the court it's far too late to move your player if he's out of position.

In short, this is an unmitigated disaster. The ball loops high into the air, not unlike that Diet Coke advert doing the rounds, and then fails to bounce at all.

Realism is nowhere to be found. Sound is completely incompetent and it has a set of garish colours the LTA would ban for contravening the rules of good taste.

If you're after a great sim, World Tennis on the PC Engine has to be seen to be believed. It's probably the best sport simulation yet created for a home computer. A hundred and seventy-five pounds for a console and a copy of the game might seem like poor value for money, but it can't be any more outrageous than this.