4 Soccer Simulators (Codemasters)

A surprisingly adept footie sim from budget house gone legit, with loads of variations and user friendly gameplay.

Cauldron (Silverbird)

Brilliant in its own right. Inspired graphics and fiendish difficulty.

Double Dragon (Melbourne House)

Beat and slash like you've never done it before! It's a cracker!

Exploding Fist+ (Firebrd)

A rehash of the original with two opponents to fight this time, but ultimately not worthy of its predecessor.

Final Assault (Epyx)

If assaulting mountains appeals to you, you'll find this one pleasantly playable.

Fists 'n' Throttles (Elite)

A not bad compilation of recent hits with one real spanker - Enduro Racer - that's worth a tenner of anyone's money!

Frank Bruno's Big Box (Elite)

There is quite a lot of fun to be had here, but most of the games are out on budget, which does tend to imply a slight overpricing.

Game, Set and Match 2 (Ocean)

Two great games, six slightly iffy games and two totally crap ones. Worth getting for the good ones.

Gauntlet (Kixx)

It's bags of fun and well worth the money.

World Beaters Giants (US Gold)

A collection of big name arcade conversions, nearly all of which are competent but disappointing.

Hellfire Attack (Martech)

An uninspired chopper game. Give it the chop.

History In The Making (US Gold)

£25 is a lot of money to spend on software all in one go - think wisely before wapping your wad out for this.

How To Be A Complete Bastard (Ricochet)

Lots of funny ideas, but the actual gameplay is no more than humdrum, mainly because not a lot seems to be happening and what does happen is rather slow.

International Rugby Simulator (Codemasters)

If you've been waiting years for a decent rugby sim, you'll love it!

Krakout (Kixx)

The graphics are a little basic, but it's eminently playable, and if you want some more bricks to batter, you could do far worse.

Lancelot (Mandarin)

With Lancelot, Mandarin has shown it can come up with a serious theme that makes full use of its skills - and which will test your skills to the full, as well.

Leader Board (Kixx)

No doubt someone's trying to better this on the 16-bit gizmos as we speak, but I can't see that anyone will ever come close to it on the Spectrum.

Motorbike Madness (Mastertronic)

The programmers were Binary Design, who have done a lot of Mastertronic games, but this, I think, is one of their best.

Netherworld (Hewson)

Flickering graphics but brilliantly balanced gameplay and - man! - it is addictive.

Ninja Massacre (Codemasters)

It's perfectly well programmed, but then it would be, as it's been done 3,450,000 times before. Utterly wretched.

Pro Skateboard Simulator (Codemasters)

Nothing too complex or elaborate - just a good, simple budget game.

Ring Wars (Cascade)

Unoriginal plot, but technically superb wired frame graphics with action, lasers and planets to land on.

Saboteur! (Encore)

This is a game to be reckoned with if you like your beat-'em-ups to have purpose, intricacy and addictiveness as well as the habitual death, blood and bruises.

Scuba Kidz (Silverbird)

All very nice but terribly old hat, and far too dull for today's more sophisticated audience.

Skateball (Ubisoft)

Balls of fun for everyone! A good addictive mix of skill, skating and bash 'em about.

Space Ace (Gremlin Graphics)

One of the best compilations around, and great value if you lack the real superstar games.

Techno Cop (Gremlin Graphics)

Surprisingly addictive mix of racing simulation and scrolling shoot-'em-up, both well programmed and presented.

Thunder Blade (US Gold)

Brilliant scrolling and graphics combine to make an excellent shoot-'em-up and faithful conversion from the coin-op.

Traz (Gamebusters)

It's much the worst game of its kind that I've seen, so let's say no more and let it expire with dignity.

Uridium (Rack-It)

If you are extremely prejudiced towards aliens, want to fry their butts off, and would like to pilot a ship at incredible speeds then Uridium's the game for you.

Video Classics (Silverbird)

Pong with pretty backgrounds, and really rather dull.