You want rare? We'll give you rare - this compilation isn't even on sale in the UK. Rod Mead investigates...

Until now French softies Lankhor have been able to get most of their ST games distributed either through Domark or Ubisoft in the UK, but Metallic Power is different. It's only available direct from the company themselves. So, before you pop down to the post office and send a bunch of fivers off to le Continent, you'd better see if it's worth the hassle.

The best game here has to be Vroom, the best racing sim ever released on the ST. It makes Nigel Mansell's World Championship look like a trundle around in a shopping trolley. Fast, smooth-scrolling graphics and extremely realistic sound effects make this a racing experience like no other. It's brilliant.

You're given a choice of Training, Arcade or Championship modes or you can watch the demo and see how the experts do it. Best of all, get one of your pals to hook up his ST to yours for tons of simultaneous tyre-squealing mayhem.

With only six circuits, the game lacks longevity and there are no custom car options like more recent racing sims. But, hey, who cares? Vroom still knocks spots off the competition. The feeling of realism you experience as your car shoots around the track is awe-inspiring. Take a corner too fast and your tyres squeal in protest and you get some pretty spectacular explosions when you plough into obstacles at 300mph. A more spectacular view of the action can be achieved by toggling the F10 key - this zooms you even closer into the action, making the game appear faster still.

Only the Arcade mode can be controlled by the joystick, the rest of the time you need to use the mouse - something which can take a little while to get used to.

This is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up starring a disabled spaceship and an escort vessel. As pilot of the escort vessel it's your job to ensure the damaged ship gets from one side of a level to another unscathed. Between you and the exit are a host of baddies, obstacles and puzzle blocks which you have to deal with. There are also a number of bonus objects - like weapon power-ups - for you to collect.

When you first start to play, Outzone looks like just another monotonous blast, but the puzzle element and dealing with the stricken ship soon has you glued to your ST. You have to keep constantly on the move,destroying obstacles and blasting baddies while zipping backwards and forwards to check on the drone's progress - it's a bit like a primitive version of Sleepwalker really, except it's not so cutesy.

Graphically, the game's pretty unremarkable - the ship sprites are small and there's nothing here to take your breath away. However, the backgrounds are jollied up a bit by the inclusion of some colourful parallax scrolling.

All compilations have at least one dodge game and Metallic Power is no exception. Genius is an isometrically scrolling arcade game featuring the cutesy robotic talents of G Nius, the chief maintenance robot who's thrown into turmoil when your spaceship crashes and the ship's inhabitants go berserk.

You have to guide the little robot from one end of the ship to the other, killing off baddies and avoiding the many traps and obstacles which lie in wait. The problem with all this is that the little robot is virtually impossible to control - you find yourself plummeting down ravines and colliding with baddiess through no fault of your own. Much of the blame for this can be levelled at the isometric layout of each room - if you've ever played D/Generation you can appreciate how tricky the controls are. Genius has little to offer and you're going to be stuffing it back into the game box quicker than you got it out.

Metallic Power is an average compilation containing the classic Vroom and moderately addictive Outzone. Unfortunately Genius is completely cack. Whether you can be bothered to send an international money order off to France for this is debatable, especially when both Vroom and Outzone are still available through Ubisoft.

This compilation's worth £25 for Vroom alone. Outzone isn't too bad either.

Unfortunately, Genius is. Still, two out of three isn't bad.