Micro Machines (Codemasters)

Superb racer, pretty fair fun on your own but amazing with two players. Oddly enough, it's absolutely brilliant.

Diggers (Millennium)

If you like strategy games and are into the idea of hour-long games, then you'll consider this nothing short of a classic, but awkward interaction and peculiar pace stop this getting a higher score.

Burning Rubber (Ocean)

It's technically naff in most ways, but I've got a soft spot for it I can't quite shake off.

Overkill (Digisoft)

Although it may well be a bit thin for a full-price release in this day and age, Overkill is still a damn groovy blast in classic Defender style.

Hired Guns (DMA Design)

Wow! An interactive experience of co-operation and extreme violence.

Gear Works (Hollyware Entertainment)

This has lots of potential, and is a fresh idea in an ideologically bereft market. It manages to keep you mildly addicted despite the overall lack of challenge.

Dogfight (MicroProse)

Dogfight's an aeroplane shoot-'em-up, and while you can pick it up and start blasting away, there's enough sim in it to allow you to perfect your flying style and combat techniques.

Realms Of Arkania: Blade Of Destiny (US Gold)

This is huge! And it's (quite) instantly accessible! And there are more options available than you could shake all eight disks at!

Caesar Deluxe (Impressions)

It's very easy to get into, it's very easy to play and, what with the prospect of promotion to take over new cities, there's (probably) quite some scope to it.

Napoleonics (On-Line Entertainment)

Frankly I can't see why this has been released. It's so primitive. It's like being whisked back to the dawn of home computing.

Morph (Millennium)

Morph was a top puzzler that could only be improved by being enlarged and toughened up. And now it has been.

Loom (Kixx XL)

A really rather splendid little adventure game, even if it is centred around the rather prosaic art of weaving.

F17 Challenge (Team 17)

'Arcade' mode is dismally badly thought-out, but if you stick to the 'Normal' mode, this is an okayish racer. Okayish, but, to be honest, dull, and definitely the low point of Team 17's career so far.

Mean 18 (The Hit Squad)

The only saving grace of this product is that you may find yourself coming over all squidgy and sentimental about the halcyon days of the good old C64. Regrettably, Mean 18 has none of the gameplay or charm that the old workhorse's games could muster.

Hill Street Blues (Buzz)

It's a step in the right direction as far as licences are concerned. But its very detail rapidly got on my nerves, and I never found myself actually enjoying it.

Midwinter 2: Flames Of Freedom (Kixx XL)

If you want an absorbing game that'll keep you busy for decades, then this one's definitely for you... It's so big.

Formula One Challenge (Amivision)

Whatever the magic formula is for the perfect management sim, Formula One Challenge just hasn't found it.

Toki (The Hit Squad)

A brilliant coin-op conversion. The graphics are nice, pretty, colourful and so on and the scrolling is nice and smooth, with no hiccups, snatches, jerks, pull-ups, snares or other snags.

Hardball (The Hit Squad)

Dull and dated baseball sim that, like most things, manages to come up with a fair bit of entertainment if you rope a friend into joining in.

Starblade (Daze)

It's quite entertaining for a while, but after the while has passed you'll decide that it lacks excitement.

Chase H.Q. 2 (The Hit Squad)

Miles better than the first Amiga Chase HQ, but that still only makes it rubbish. Stick with a Lotus.