Explosive software at its level best. Are you brave enough to take it on?

The blast is out! Five storming offerings on one big collection that'll blow your mind if you're not careful.

Kicking off, the first outing is the future shock of Hydra, set in a terrorist infested future world, where only one man can get those all-important parcels delivered on time... you! Using the codename of Hydra, you must control your turbo-charged Hydracraft through 31 levels, split up into nine incredible missions. To complete each mission, you must make sure that your valuable cargo gets delivered, be it mutant virus strains or nasty doomsday devices.

As you power down the different waterways, you must destroy all rogue craft in your way, using your special homing missiles, flamethrowers, Uzi cannons and bombs. Sounds easy, but it ain't. If you happen to get bombed out, then the nasty Shadow will be the first to pick up your cargo so, the first thing you must do on the restart, is get the shadow and recover your goods as quick as you can. Every third level, you get to enter the bonus round in the Hydrad one. Do well here and you can earn plenty of cash to buy more gear. As you proceed, don't forget to use your handy anti-grav booster to get you out of trouble.

All in all, a brilliantly crafted game that'll hook you straight off, and well worth inclusion in this compilation.

Next up is the swashbuckling adventure of Skull And Crossbones. As a one or two-player blast, this is a real gem, as you take on the roles of One Eye and Red Dog through eight increasingly difficult levels to retrieve your booty from the Evil sorcerer.

Taking on the evil henchmen along the way, your task is to pick up as much treasure, coins and jewels as you canilasically, the more you pickup, the stronger you get, making your progress much easier.

Fail to pick anything up and you'll soon begin to lose strength and fade away. Keep your eyes peeled for the skulls and crossbones, as these mark the hiding places of treasures. Simply move over them and press space to find them. Rewards for your efforts come in the form of rum, grapes and other goodies to keep you healthy.

However, make sure you take care at the end of each level, as you must take on the guardian to win the prize treasure of that domain. And, no sooner have you won that, when your partner turns on you and tries to win it for himself!

Bad sportsmanship, what? But guaranteed to create needle between friends. At the end of the day, if you are good enough, you will make it through to the final head-to-head with the sorcerer, where some fierce fighting may win you more wealth than you've ever dreamt of before.

Good luck and don't miss this excellent offering.

Escape from The Planet Of The Robot Monsters is next on the list, which also features a superb two-player option. Taking on the roles of Jake or Duke, your mission is to rescue Professor Sarah Bellum and free the hostages before they are turned into Robo-Zombies. Nasty stuff!

Progressing through the factories and warehouses of Planet X, you must destroy the Reptilons guarding the hostages and destroy the computers to get your hands on enhanced firepower.

Turning on the Port-o-Matics will help you to move around the different levels of the factories and, when you shoot some baddies, be sure to pick up the crystals they leave behind for even more blasting power.

Every three levels, you will come up against a particularly nasty Reptilon, who will need serious attention before it can be destroyed. Save your bombs and be careful with your ammo if you want to have enough to deal with the big guys.

To rescue the hostages, simply walk into them and they will be transported back to your mothership. The more you save, the bigger the bonus you get at the end of each factory level.

This is one rough and tumble game that'll break you out in sweat from the very start. As a one player outing it is great fun but, with two, it is much, much better. Great graphics and superbly styled... don't miss this one.

For racing freaks, how about an outing on the eight unique tracks of Badlands. Again, for one or two players, this is a race to the death, with only the winners surviving to race again another day.

The aim of the game is to drive as fast as you can, picking up spanners along the way, to continue in the next round. Failure to finish means instant disqualification, while finishing behind a drone car will automatically lose you a credit.

If you collect enough spanners, you can customise your car between races, making it even harder for the others to get near you.

Using your missiles, you can not only take out the opposition, but you can even alter the landscape if you like a little wanton destruction, and why not?

As each of the tracks gets progressively harder as you advance, this is one challenge that will take some time to master. It may not look too exciting at the beginning but, once the action hots up, and especially if two players are driving at the same time, the tension certainly mounts up, making this an excellent offering for both racing and shootie fans.

Last up on this excellent collection is the high speed challenge of the Spread Tunnel Underground Network Runner, or STUN Runner for short.

This one is all about flying hell fo r leather down the twisting tunnels, avoiding obstacles and enemy craft, to complete the incredible 24 levels to the finish line.

Following the line of green stars in the tunnel will indicate the fastest route and, if you collect enough of them, you can earn some very handy Shockwaves, which destroy everything in their path when used.

Arm yourself and be prepared to meet some very nasty obstacles to your progress. The Trains will simply block your path, while the Flyers will try to bomb you out of existence. All of the bad guys need to be shot or avoided if you want to succeed.

Don't forget though, that you are racing against the clock as well. Fail to finish a level within the specified time, and it's back to the beginning again.

Again, not a bad outing, although it does get a trifle repetitive after a while. Having said that, it makes up an excellent member of the overall compilation.

Each of the games are well thought out and fun to play, which has to be important. If you're looking for extended playing power at great value for money, then you won't go far wrong with this one.