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Before US Gold give up the ghost on ST arcade conversions altogether - preferring instead to concentrate on the more intellectual game-player - they're going all out to make sure that if you didn't buy them the first time around, you will now. The Capcom Collection is a collection of their Capcom conversions. Yes, really.

First up there's Strider 1 and 2, which sees you battling nasties with a very large machete along hundreds of platforms. Nice animation here. Next, UN Squadron, an aerial shoot-'em-up with no morals whatsoever. Last Duel and LED Storm are both viewed-from-overhead racing games with not a little speed and violence. Forgotten Worlds is yet another futuristic scrolling shooter for one or two players. In Ghouls And Ghosts you're a medieval knight trying to rescue his girlie through a scrolling platform landscape. Finally, in Dynasty Wars you're on horseback, hacking your way through more murderous hordes.

Graphics vary throughout the collection from pretty good with interesting animation (Strider 1 and 2) to hopeless (Ghouls And Ghosts) and all sorts of shades in between. However, none of the effects, either visual or audio, really stand out as anything spectacular in any of the games.

Eight games! Ten disks! What value! Er - not really. There are really only two games here. A scrolling shoot-'em-up (UN Squadron, Last Duel, Forgotten Worlds, Dynasty Wars and LED Storm) and a scrolling platform shoot-'em-up (Strider, Strider 2 and Ghouls And Ghosts). By far the best of the bunch are the Striders, with all the rest trailing very badly. Ghouls And Ghosts and UN Squadron as particularly pathetic. All the games are getting on a bit and didn't really set the world on fire when they first appeared.

Unless your second name is Capcom or you're desperate to get a collection of mediocre, overpriced and imagination-free games, forgo the dubious pleasure of this pack. There are far more important and interesting ways to spend your time, like wrestling with Euclidean mathematics.

1. Loads of games, but someone somewhere forgot to include anything you'd want to play.
2. For a really worthwhile compilation, seek out the Rainbow Collection. It's £8 cheaper too.