With another Star Wars anniversary just gone, what better time to re-release a trilogy of games based on the three films from George Lucas. Last year probably, but aside from that here's a golden opportunity to pay twenty quid for three games. Yup, as a compilation this doesn't exactly offer value for money.

Off we go with Star Wars, the original vector graphic game with three sections. Shoot Tie fighters in pseudo 3-D, before you are down to the Death Star surface, and take out giant lamp posts.

Shoot out all the lights and win a big vandal bonus, before facing the section where you always come a cropper, the trench. Well, a total bleeder this, and no mistake, and no Millennium Falcon to help out either.

But catwalks across the trench? Yes the coin-op of the film always did take liberties with the plot. It was all jolly exciting on the 16-bit versions of the game, largely thanks to the responsive control and fast speed. On the Amstrad, it isn't. It's like driving a blancmange on London's orbital motorway.

The Empire Strikes Back is more of the wire frame malarky, but with far worse gameplots. Strangely enough, the control as you go hunting for walkers, Tie fighters in space, followed by asteroids is much better than the previous game and would have made the game quite playable. Unfortunately, there is a great sense of 'so what' after navigating lots of rocks. I mean, it isn't exactly apocalyptic, is it? I can't imagine anyone punching the air with excitement because they've avoided that final rock.

The audio accompaniment to all this is so tinny and rudimentary that it may as well not be there.

Ho hum. Part three, Return Of The Jedi, and a completely different style of game. And a pretty damn good game too. This is all Zaxxon-style solid graphic diagonal scrolling action in three parts. To start you must mount your jet bike as you take the part of Princess Lela, with all her lovely outfits as well. You start off going through the forest, avoiding trees, bushes, and Imperial bikers. Be careful not to let them get behind you otherwise kiss goodbye to using the hair rollers again. The fluffy bears of Yendor set traps along the way, and the first person who passes through, activates them for the next person to come a cropper in. Driving down the log tunnel is difficult but rather satisfying.

Make it to the end of the forest and then you go back again, but this time in a walker. It isn't quite as big as it should be, but with all the colour scrolling around it's no wonder. Shoot the small logs, avoid the bigger ones, and then it's on to the Millennium Falcon storming through the reconstructed Death Star, for a last gasp shoot and destroy mission. With a race back out again as flames lick at the hull, and the Death Star blowing apart across the sky, this is more like excitement.

I wouldn't recommended the first two games at all, but Return Of The Jedi, with its excellent graphics and crisp gameplay is certainly worth getting. Either go out and buy it on its own, or pay an extra fiver and get two very indifferent games as well.