Adidas Championship Tie Break (Ocean)

With its pre-game options and fast moving sprites, this is one of the better tennis games around.

Badlands (Domark)

A good conversion, but the coin-op itself isn't really innovative enough to make the game really exciting.

Barbarian 2 (Kixx)

A basic beat-'em-up... maybe worth having in your collection just to watch the great animation, especailly when the large dinosaur munches on your head! Yuk.

The Boxer (Cult)

The Boxer is a new style for management games, and quite pleasing it is too…

California Games (Kixx)

A good alternative to all those endless track and field sports simulations.

Magicland Dizzy (Codemasters)

An essential purchase for every Spectrum owner. It's magic!

Gunboat (Accolade)

Gunboat is a reasonable simulation of marine machines, but who wants to use them anyway?

Helter Skelter (Audiogenic)

Graphics are jolly, there's a lot of imagination gone into designing the monsters, but the occasional backdrop is overworked, too detailed, making it tricky to clearly see what's going on.

Henrietta's Book Of Spells (Scetlander)

For the 11-14 year olds, the very basic graphics and animation within each game will seem pretty poor compared to the stuff they're used to playing, and the story's a bit soppy for them too.

Kick Off 2 (Anco)

What really annoys me about Kick Off 2 is the control options. I wanted to play a two player game with one player on joystick and one on keys. But you just can't do it!

Kwik Snax (Codemasters)

Once you start playing you just won’t be able to stop, and why should you when it’s as good as this? 100% pure CodeMasters fun and frolics!

The Manager (GTi)

All football management fans will find this game interesting, being one of the first ones to allow you to carry on your winning streak in a future release.

Narc (Ocean)

Sadly, due to the Spectrum’s limitations, the game is monochrome but the attention to detail is amazing! The moving sprites are highly defined, as are the backdrops.

Out Run (Kixx)

The graphics are not too bad but it's things like speed, the multi-load and music that let it down.

Puzznic (Ocean)

A great game that will no doubt keep me playing into the wee hours in my little padded cell for quite a while yet.

Rugby Manager (Mastertronic Plus)

Makes a refreshing change from the endless football games and management fans will have a bit of fun playing it.

Run The Gauntlet (The Hit Squad)

Run The Gauntlet has its good and bad points but I'd recommend it to all racing fans.

Shadow Of The Beast (Gremlin)

The monochrome display didn’t spoil my enjoyment, but the monsters get hidden in the backgrounds: it’s hard to prepare a punch when you can’t see what you’re punching!

Snow Strike (US Gold)

I'd have preferred a wider range of weapons and mission targets, but despite its limitations Snow Strike is surprisingly enjoyable.

Spooky Castle (Atlantis)

Each screen is laid out in such an annoying way that you won't only be cursing the ghosts for killing you but also kicking your screen in a rage.

Star Wars (The Hit Squad)

After a little practice all the attack waves can be mastered - which kills the long-term appeal of the game. However, you can get plenty of enjoyment from Star Wars.

Strider 2 (US Gold)

The main character sprite is still as atheletic as ever and as a bonus now carries an extra weapon (yippee!). I love it!

Subbuteo (Electronic Zoo)

What's the point of a computer simulation of Subbuteo? Owners of the original table-top game are going to be the only ones interested - and only so they can play it on their own.

Tiger Road (Kixx)

A variety of weapons are available but they don't seem to help a lot! The best course of action is to get off each level as fast as possible.

U.N. Squadron (US Gold)

A great shoot-'em-up romp with a ton of impressive enemies to take a pot shot at!