Run away! This compilation is about to explode! TNT is notoriously volatile and could blow up at any moment. So let's ask the thick-skinned, heavily-armoured James Leach to poke it with a pencil until the games fall out...

Heave ho, me hearties. Three pints of danger and a helping of rum. Skull And Crossbones sets you firmly in a sideways-scrolling chop-'em-up world. It's bright, colourful but not that sophisticated. There's a fair bit of fighting to do though, and a pretty decent two-player option to help you do it. Sadly, it's just a case of whacking the fire button to kill everyone, one by one.

Overall, it's about as mind-stretching as lying fast asleep on a beach in Tahit, listening to the sun dip gently below the horizon.

Badlands, next. Sixteen courses packed with corners, straight bits and unusual hazards. Like Indy Heat, you must race a small sprite around the single-screen circuits. Three other cars belt around, too. But the most fun to be had is with another human racer. You can use missiles, bombs, guns and daffodils to disable your opponents and make sure you win.

Badlands is an excellent midget-sprite racer. Although frustrating, it's smooth, fast and controllable.

STUN Runner is next on the review-crew's Formica work-top. You've got to guide a sort of bubble-car with wings along a series of tunnels at high speed. Coming up the other way are various things to be blasted (or collected)

It's a nice idea, and with 24 levels there's a lot to do. In fact, it's a pretty good conversion of the old Atari coin-op. The only things wrong with it are that it sometimes looks slow and jerky and the sound effects are a tad harsh. The music is good, though. Yes, STUN Runner isn't bad at all.

In Hydra, you have to chug along various canals and streams, carrying a virus in a jam-jar. Some nasty men try and steal it by blowing you up or ramming you, so you have to shoot them. There's a 3D behind-the-boat view, and you can speed up, slow down and weave around. It's really a driving game, only the road is blue. Er, and it's not very brilliant.

Hydra lacks excitement. It's tedious, the graphics aren't special and you'd only buy it on cassette if you had a cassette-shaped hole in your roof and needed to plug it.

Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters is a 3D wander-about jobbie. The idea is to collect things, avoid or shoot any robots you see, and explore. It's smooth and the 3D works well, but it lacks the competitive killing edge that makes a game corkerish. But it's big, nicely drawn and it's fun.

1. Skull And Crossbones isn't particularly brilliant, sadly.
2. Unless you've got a disk drive, compilations like this can be a real pain in the bonce.
3. No real star game shines out.

1. Badlands is a storming game, and could well become your favourite.
2. STUN Runner gets a bit slow, but has some novel graphical views.
3. Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters is a 3D laugh as well.
4. Hydra is a fast, watery racing game with a few twists.
5. Overall, it's a high quality selection of Domark's goodies.