England win at cricket
International Cricket Captain 2 PC CD-Rom £34.99 Empire Interactive 01208 343 7337
International Cricket Captain 2 offers you the chance to make amends for the debacle that was the World Cup and lead England to glory.
Actually the international options are the icing on the cake to the main course: the county championship. This is the cricketers' cricket sim with plenty of opportunity to fine-tune every aspect of your team.
Eschewing the lazy option of becoming England captain straight away, most enjoyment is to be had guiding your team to domestic glory to earn the chance to captain England to some unrealistic success.
As team manager you can involve yourself in everything from transfers to tactics andthis depth that makes it all so rewarding. Developing and nurturing talented players is just as enjoyable as tinkering with field settings. The intuitive interface is a joy to use, with most options but a mouse click away, although there was a tendency to crash every now and then.
The matches are nicely done with Aggers' commentary authentic rather than annoying. You can choose to watch every ball or dip in occasionally. Although the graphics are simplistic they do enough to convey the action.
Unlike arcade style bat-'em-ups, ICC2 is a cerebral and long-term cricketing test. The need for an encyclopedic knowledge of the game is one of the few flaws as it restricts the involvement of the more casual fan.
However, you'll find that the combination of ICC2 and a free Sunday afternoon will be more than enough to banish post World Cup blues.
Two for the beach
Bust a Move 4 Gameboy £24.99 Acclaim (0171 344 5000) Prince of Persia Gameboy £24.99 Red Orb
Summertime means only one thing - taking the Gameboy to the beach. This handheld console is the great videogame survivor with a chameleon-like reinvention from lardy grey block to svelte colour icon.
Its vast catalogue is further swelled by these two classics of their respective genres. Bust a Move 4 is developer Crawfish's latest conversion. Like Tetris, this bubble-popping puzzler is perfectly suited to Nintendo's baby.
Simply halt the multicoloured bubble invasion by firing your own sticky bubbles in an attempt to join three of the same hue. This causes chain reaction-style popping as you aim to clear the screen.
It's simple to pick up but, like Tetris, is worryingly addictive with the use of pulleys and an array of tricky opponents upping the tactical slant.
The indistinct colours are initially distracting but clear a few screens and the irrepressible gameplay ensures a satisfyingly aching thumb.
Pain-free digits are essential for Prince of Persia, whose release enhances the Gameboy's growing reputation as a retirement home for 80s videogames.
Hugely influential in the days of tape drives and 64K memory, this is a perfect conversion of the platform and swordplay classic. Within a strict hour time limit you must escape the dungeon, free the girl and live happily ever after.
The visuals still impress today although the unforgiving gameplay will infuriate. Jumping alone takes time to master and, as death means restarting at the beginning, patience is essential for any kind of success.
In fact the spikes, leaps of faith and fiddly swordplay leave you longing for the fluidity of the similarly aged Super Mario.
However, with deep breaths and calm thoughts the rewards for your hard work materialise, making things increasingly absorbing.
Just be grateful that they don't make them as tough as they used to.
