The Shoe People (First Class) (Commodore 64/128)

Pretty pictures but not much lasting appeal, unless, of course, you happen to be a five-year old girl with a shoe fetish, in which case this would finish your collection off just nicely.

Trivial Pursuit (The Hit Squad) (Commodore 64/128)

Worse than having to mime The Encyclopaedia Britannica when your Mum forces you to play charades with your smelly old Great Aunt.

HeroQuest (GBH) (Commodore 64/128)

HeroQuest is so easy to play that after five minutes you'll be well into an adventure and have serious trouble turning the machine off.

Terminator 2 (The Hit Squad) (Commodore 64/128)

T2 could have been a stunning little number on the C64... but it isn't. There's very little that hasn't been done 237 times before. If you've got a few beat-em'-ups already, it ain't gonna be worth the money to splash out on another unexceptional one.

RBI 2 (The Hit Squad) (Commodore 64/128)

You'd need a degree in baseball to understand the numbers fully - it makes a cricket scoreboard look like a game of Noughts and Crosses. Luckily it's not too difficult to work out who won the game. It's discovering why that causes the problems.

Street Fighter (Kixx) (Commodore 64/128)

The graphics are blocky, the sprites aren't particularly responsive and to tell the absolute truth, it's not much fun to play. There are far better beat-'em-ups out in budget land. Do yourself a favour and get something more interesting instead.

Jimmy's Super League (Beyond Belief) (Commodore 64/128)

A footie sim for people who don't like to think too hard. It's not bad and what it does, it does competently enough but it's too inflexible.

Carnage (Zeppelin Games) (Commodore 64/128)

Not quite Super Cars standard, but not bad. Once I'd settled down with this simple little game, I started to rather enjoy it.

Gladiators (Summit) (Commodore 64/128)

For a shoot-'em-up, Gladiators is just fine. There's nothing more, nothing less.

Football Manager 3 (Addictive Games) (Commodore 64/128)

Football Manager 3 wins through as a game, and not just as a management sim, because it offers flexibility allied to a speedy set-up. By the time you've got the hang of the controls, you'll be deep into a season and committed to the team you've created.

Fun School Special: Spelling Fair (Europress) (Commodore 64/128)

An excellent program for any kid learning to read. The parents watching over them will probably learn a thing or two as well.

Big Box 2 (Beau Jolly) (Commodore 64/128)

Twenty excellent games and the manual is exceptionally informative for a compilation.

Popeye The Collection (Addictive Games) (Commodore 64/128)

Three games for the price of a large pizza! However, the original game does make you wonder how it managed to spawn any sequels.

Postman Pat Hit Collection (Alternative) (Commodore 64/128)

As Meatloaf once quothed, "Two out of three ain't bad". The first two games play well, whilst the third is slow, dull and not really worth the tape it's recorded on.

Smash 16 (Codemasters) (Commodore 64/128)

OK, you get a lot of games on this compilation. But twelve of them are frankly dreadful. And the other four aren't that much cop.