If your stock of games looks a bit weedy compared to that of your best mate, you obviously need a boost. Activision's latest mega compilation could be the answer, but is old really gold? Linda Barker powers it up to find out...

Ten games for twenty smackers, eh? It really does sound too good to miss but, before you go smashing up your pink china pig, just remember that he's been sitting on that shelf for nigh on ten years. When you do smash him up it's going to have to be for something worthwhile!

There are some good games here, such as Rampage, which is simple, but fun. Just choose your monster and proceed to wipe out a city. Then climb up the sides of buildings, punch them to bits, grab helicopters out of the air, climb to the top of the building and wave your arms around a lot. It's just like being in a King Kong movie, kind of.

Fun of a rather different sort can be had with Die Hard. The idea here is to wander around various New York locations and, erm, kill people. The graphics are pretty basic (it looks like the programmer missed out half the on-screen objects), but what the heck.

Another goodie is Ghostbusters 2. The graphics are big and bold, the slime monsters are lush and green and the various ghosties are suitably scary. It's an easy game to grasp; simply kill loads of ghosts and collect your power-ups, loads more weapons, courage boost and a mucus-scooper. Mmm!

The most difficult game in the pack is Fighter Bomber. As with most fight sims, there's tons to do and loads to master before you can become Mr Ace Pilot. There's oodles of weapons, a choice of plane and a variety of difficult missions. Load it up, get really scared, decide to go home and get told you can't. (Darn!)

Now, all the above games are good, but none is amazing. A compilation with just those five games for a tenner would be loads more of a barg than the actual package we've got here. You see, the rest of the games are pretty dire. Star Rank Boxing is a rather dull boxing game in which you get to throw a lot of punches and stare at the audience, which is made up of pink, yellow and purple blobs. You can't really tell what punches you're throwing, which makes it more of a 'punch and see what happens' rather than a strategic 'if I do a left-hook, he'll come crashing down' game.

The Last Ninja is just as boring in its own way. All you have to do is walk along a path, kick people and collect various objects. The graphics are nice and clear but the whole thing is neither good fun nor incredibly awful, it's just okay.

Grave Yardage tries to re-invent American Football and, well, doesn't. Your Grid Iron looks daft, pointlessly violent and yet has a depth of strategy under its padding.

Grave Yardage manages to look daft, seem confusing, be pointlessly violent and, uh, that's it. There isn't the essential strategy to back up the silly rules.

Battletech is just plain weird. Not only are you given the most ridiculous blob to represent you (and later your plane), but there are also big chunks of text that appear to have come from some surreal Flash Gordon adventure. I tried talking to people, but the only response I got was "nobody seems to want to talk to you". This, I suppose, can be called a fight sim, it went completely above my head and confused me for days!

Gee Bee Air Rally is a racing game that takes place up among the clouds rather than on a dusty track. The graphics are naff and dated and the gameplay is just not exciting enough to make up for it. Apparently there are sixteen levels but you'll get fed up long before that.

The last duffer is Shanghai. Now I love this tile-matching game but I had so much difficulty working out what was actually pictured on the tiles that I got frustrated very quickly. There must be better versions of this around.

There's no single outstanding game in this pack, with the possible exception of Fighter Bomber. If you're a flight sim buff then this is a game you should have. Then again, if you're a flight sim buff you've probably already got it. There are some games that are worth having here, like Rampage and Ghostbusters 2, but it's probably best to buy them on their own rather than in this collection.

Power
Hits isn't the bargain it first appears to be, for twenty quid you could go and buy a beautiful full-pricer or five dead smart budgets. Think about it.