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Tiger taming is the first event in the Big Top simulation Circus Games. It seems bizarre but it's really quite simple. By keeping yourself in front of the stalking tiger, you can alter its direction just by the crack of a whip.

Loading the game is a lengthy process because Tynesoft insists on flashy loading screens - all very nice, but once you've seen it you don't want to have to view it each and every time you load the game.

However, apart from this, the game has little to disfigure it. The events are good fun, and the graphics well drawn. An oddity, and an improvement if I may say so, is that author Gary James has managed to find alternative methods of controlling the artistes. Most of the events involve performing somersaults or hand-stands while simultaneously balancing, for example on the back of a horse or across a tightrope. Real dexterity is needed with the keys.

Circus Games provides the facility to 'save' the actions just made. This is really useful if you want to prove to the person who wasn't watching when they should have been, that you really are capable of completing a certain event.

The final event combines all the skills learned in the previous four. Entitled International competition it invokes you and up to three other players to battle it out for the trophy.

Circus Games is definitely among the best from the Tynesoft simulation department, and probably worth buying. Superman - The Man Of Steel is also released this month and both games have their pros and cons. Overall, the balance just swings towards the red seal. Tick, VG.

Sam Greenhill