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Remember the old Monty Python sketch with the TV announcer - "...and for those of you who don't like sport, there's sport."? Well, for those of you who don't like sports sims, here's a sports sim. Andy Lowe provides the Colemanballs...

Once upon a time - 1984 to be reasonably precise - a series of arcade games appeared in which, instead of the usual light-speed reflexes and itchy trigger-finger, you had to crouch over the console and bash the hell out of the buttons. The faster you bashed, the better score you achieved. The games were Hyper Olympics and Hyper Sports and the general idea was to render you so knackered after playing that you'd get a pretty good feel how an athlete felt after a real race.

The big problem with these games was that, while you had no qualms about toddling off down to the local chippy to beat a tatty arcade game to a pulp, the machine you had at home was yours - it was precious and you'd paid for it. Besides, if anyone else so much as looked at it, they were dead. As a result, this kind of thing didn't do very well on home computers.

With Psygnosis' The Carl Lewis Challenge, it doesn't look as though things are going to change. Sports sims adhere to the ancient cliche that when they're good, they're OK and when they're bad, they're appalling... This just about qualifies for the "almost-OK...ish... with a hint of hmmm, not particularly gripping, is it?" category.

As you probably know, Carl Lewis is a relatively famous US athlete who, unaided by any artificial stimulants, manages to jump a lot further than anyone else in the world. He's also a bit handy at running, too. Unfortunately, although he seems to have heavily endorsed the game on the surface, when you actually study the documentation, his approval doesn't actually amount to much. There are plenty of photos of his good self doing athletic things and a flimsy leaflet entitled "Carl's Training Advice" - relevant only to the dull and instantly forgettable training option. Of course, if you really fancy the idea of the simulated training of a country's squad - taking into account such psysiological technicalities as isometrics - muscular tension without movement - and isotonics - those drinks which improve your energy - then the training section is precisely what you want and you won't be able to leave it alone. But that's unlikely.

Your best bet is to turn to the arcade section, which features five events divided into a series of heats leading up to the finals where you could win a medal if you shake your mouse fast enough. Here, you see, you can indulge in a bit of frenetic mouse-waggling to give your athlete speed and power and to give your mates the opportunity to laugh at you as you frantically slide your mouse back and forth over a helpless mouse mat.

There are two ways in which you can control your mouse. Speed - which means the quicker you waggle the mouse, the quicker your athlete moves - or the, er, "rhythm method" - vibrate the hell out of the right button and use the left button for "action" - jumping and throwing. Alternatively, you may wish to use a joystick - in which case you can revert to the old faithful wiggling and break the joystick in seconds. Alternatively, you can select the "gearing" option, where the Fire button is the movement command and the up direction on the joystick controls throwing and jumping.

Apart from the cleverly digitised, animated graphics, there's nothing remotely new or exciting here. The Carl Lewis Challenge is a passable attempt at a sports sim which doesn't exactly shadow any boundaries of originality or direction. The endorsement means the events are unvaried and are precisely the same as those that were used in the old Hyper Olympics - which wisely stuck to arcade action and avoided any efforts to include a skippable strategy category.

Do yourself a big favour and get the more original, much more playable and criminally under-rated International Sports Challenge from Empire instead.