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Serve, lob, smash, they're all here in Adidas Championship Tie Break. Ocean's tennis extravaganza! Tie Break is full of selections for the player to make, giving you one of the most comprehensive tennis simulations yet. All this with TV-style presentation!

At the beginning of each game you have the choice of playing on either grass, clay or indoor courts. A single or doubles game is available: once selected you have to designate a major tournament to play at. Those available are Wimbledon, the Davis Cup or the French Open. The choices to be made don't end there though, there are six different racquets for your selection. Each is made from a light material and vary in weight, strength and type of strings.

Training mode will help out those of you who aren't budding Ivan Lendls. All the options of the real game are available and you have the choice of any of the six computer players as partners and opponents in a single or doubles game. They all have different statistics so you can have the ones best suited to your needs.

Tennis games on the Spectrum go back as long as the computer itself (anyone remember Match Point?).Tie-Break has excellent presentation: screen after screen of colourful, highly detailed options. But having made your selections you move out onto the court, and this is a real let down. The courts are all monochrome, the colour changing when you change from grass to clay or indoor. You play from an aerial view which is supposed to be as on TV! Whenever I've watched tennis on the telly the main camera view has always been from behind one of the players, not from a seagull flying overhead! The wealth of options will give the game an advantage over many of the other tennis simulations, but this isn't enough to keep me playing for long. An average tennis game, nothing to jump the net about.

NICK ... 69%

'One thing I like about Adidas Championsip Tie Break is that you only have to decide which shot to play. I hate tennis games where you have to concentrate on moving the character as well. Graphically the tame is pretty good, though the main sprites are seen from above so a head with arms is all that's visible. Adidas Championship Tie Break with its pre-game options and fast moving sprites is one of the better tennis games around.'