What exactly is Trio? Well, it's sort of glossily packaged on the outside with a nice wrapper, but it's sort of chewy on the inside. Then again it's a bit nutty and sometimes a bit vile. Trio is the latest three-in-one software wafer from Elite.

What you have here is a kind of pre-compilation of three unreleased games. Here they are definitely not in order of importance:

Believe it or not, Elite have converted Taito's wobbly old sword and shield game, I remember playing this in a service station a few years back... and thinking it was rubbish then. If you're fortunate enough never to have seen it then let me tell you that you control a knight called Gurianos and make your way across the screen in an attempt to get to some treasure.

As you make your way all manner of objects fly at you from off stage. Fireballs, arrows, swords and logs. Using your shield, you attempt to deflect the objects. Sometimes they rain at you so heavily you'll need to put up a super shield which appears as a kind of blue aura in front of you.

The thing about the game is its extremely large figures. Several characters high, most of the attention is lavished on them, with background graphics and colour figuring little. This is even more true of Elite's effort where the colours are flat and dull.

Apart from the mind-numbing gameplay Great Gurianos is extremely frustrating. To make it through each level, you must put up the large shield and get that Ready Brek glow going. To do this, you have to waggle the joystick up and down more violently than any old Track And Field event. Sometimes the shield comes up and sometimes, most frustratingly, it doesn't even though you waggle until the sweat pours off you. Beating the characters when you reach them is a piece of cake in comparison, but oh it is ugly to watch! There's no real striking using the joystick. Rather, you have to flick F1 or F2 to strike high or low on the opponent. Basically, I hate this game.

Seasoned veterans of the gaming world will remember Airwolf, still one of the all-time big sellers, and believe it or not Elite's most successful game ever.

The original was a tough but highly-addictive arcade adventure (the first game we ever mapped in colour for Play To Win) but the only resemblance its sequel has to it is the helicopter you fly. Otherwise what you have before you is a shameless copy of Nemesis and a fairly dull one at that.

Airwolf II has all the right elements for that shoot-'em-up: sheet upon sheet of nasties, icons for different weapons which you collect for increased speed and shooting power. You know the score. As a version it is immensely tough, but not that addictive either. The graphics are only average with a maze of what looks like lego bricks to fly through. It's just so hard to get anywhere and really there's very little incentive to keep trying.

The saving grace of Trio, the soft succulent centre of the package is a simple but extremely cute game. The idea is neat, and really as old as your granny. In true collect-'em-up style, you control a group of red bouncing balls. The idea, as you scroll across the screen, left to right, is to collect ten balloons. These float around at various points, and by adjusting your bounce you can grab them. Snapping up the requisite amount takes you onto the next level.

Naturally you don't just get to collect the balloons at your leisure. Birds, bees, hedgehogs and vicious flowers hinder your path in level one. Then as you move on, there's cacti and sharp rocks in the desert. In all, you have eight levels to work through comprised of clouds, space, icebergs and the sea bed. Each time you hit an obstacle, one of yourballs gets burst. Until finally they're all gone. Then it's back to the beginning.

Cataball is by far the best game on Trio. Although it reminds you a little of Wonderboy to begin with, but it is pretty original in its scenario and its gameplay is charming. Without it, the package would be disastrous even at three games for the price of one. It's still a bit pricey for what's on offer, but it just about makes the grade. Elite clearly saw there was no way they could have got away with the other two at full price so they put all three together.

Trio definitely the game you can play between other games.