Astro Marine Corps (Dinamic)

Pretty, well programmed but desperately uninnovative Dinamic shoot-'em-up.

Blinky's Scary School (Zeppelin Games)

A tidy little number... Yes, it may just be another platform-and-ladders jobby, splashed with colour and cutsie baddies but then it's a bargain basement title, so why bother looking too closely?

The Bounty Hunter (Codemasters)

Bounty Hunter is cheap, cheerful and takes very little brains to play - which is a bit of a boon actually 'cos mine keeps on getting blown away.

Pro Boxing Simulator (Codemasters)

The only 'highlights' are the foul moves - headbutts and groin punches etc - which you can stick in here and there (providing the ref's not looking, that is). Not that they're particularly thrilling though.

Dragon's Lair (Encore)

Undeniably good value, but technically a bit dubious. By all means rush out and buy it but don't expect to be glued to it for the rest of your life or anything.

Escape From Singe's Castle (Encore)

The only joy I got out of it was bludgeoning it to Speccy heaven with my baseball bat.

Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters (Domark)

A barrel of laughs - very playable, quite fast and full of little graphic touches. Best in two player mode.

Future Bike Simulator (Hi-Tec)

I do quite like this... But it's so flippin' easy, you could play this little sucka with your eyes closed.

Italia '90: World Cup Soccer (Virgin/Mastertronic)

Perhaps not the best of the World Cup batch (largely because, apart from the title and the instruction booklet, it has very little to do with the machinations of the World Cup!) but a close contender as a pretty good footie game.

Kenny Dalglish Soccer Match (Impress)

A turkey which just about scrapes into the GM Vauxhall Conference. Top of the league stuff it ain't.

Little Puff In Dragonland (Cartoon Time)

It's colourful and it's cute... The puzzles are of the 'pick up and use the correct object at the right time' breed; really a case of the more you play, the further you get, if you know what I mean.

Manchester United (Krisalis)

Fast but simple footie sim combined with well-presented management - nice if that's your bag.

Micro Mouse (Mastertronic Plus)

The track is vastly small and nothing new ever happens - you're stuck on the same level for ever and ever and ever and ever. It's crap.

The Miser (Zenobi)

No graphics, no surprises, but a good solid adventure from our mutual friend, Jack Lockerby.

Pro Golf Simulator (Codemasters)

It's not vastly different from the other three trillion golfy games available of course but what it does, it does well.

Quartet (The Hit Squad)

It's just level after level of exactly the same migrane-inducing horribleness. After ten or so levels you realise that things obviously aren't going to improve.

Rock Star Ate My Hamster (Codemasters)

This is a pretty lighthearted strategy game (no matter what other Speccy mags may tell you)... You press the right keys at the right time and you get about as many laughs out of it as reading a Labour Party manifesto.

Vendetta (System 3)

It's a beat-'em-up, a driving game, and an arcade adventure! And it's quite good too.

World Cup Year 90 Compilation (Empire)

No great shakes graphically but a strong compilation nevertheless, with three top league games.

Yogi's Great Escape (Hi-Tec)

Very simple, pretty uninspiring and extremely repetitive. In fact, I doubt you'll be able to 'bear' it for very long at all (ho ho!).