Mario serves up a ball on court
Mario Tennis N64
£44.99 Camelot/Nintendo ****
OK, it's only a fortnight since the release of Mario Party 2 but, unless you have a serious aversion to lardy plumbers, Mario Tennis is well worth checking out. As expected, it eschews the gorgeous authenticities of Sega's Virtua Tennis and instead offers a typically colourful Nintendo rendition of the racquet sport.

So instead of Henman we get Lugi, Yoshi and Boo, the ghost. Oddly enough, despite the juvenile exterior, Mario Tennis plays a very grown-up game with marvellous subtlety in control and design.

The faintest flick of the joystick can alter the shot, making this a surprisingly skilled undertaking. Not that this should deter newcomers, as Mario Tennis is easy to pick up and play. Initially, it all seems very straightforward as you serve up lengthy rallies and make rapid progression in the tournaments, although it's not too long before it gets tough. But perhaps the most fun to be had is in multiplayer, doubles in particular, which are murderously competitive.

Single players shouldn't worry, though. The key to all Mario games is the sense of progression; there's always something new to discover or unravel. Mario Tennis is no different, with the player encouraged to win tournaments and uncover new courts and characters.

Unfortunately, one of these hard fought finds - the fiery Bowser court - is a disappointment. While playing on a tilting court, simultaneously avoiding shells and lava balls, sounds amusing, the difficulty in following the ball renders it a temporary curiosity at best. Still, the odd dodgy level aside, Mario Tennis has served up another ace for the Nintendo team. (GH)

This Roman scandal is a damp squib
Rome: Caesar's Will
PC CD-rom £29.99 Montparnasse Multimedia **
Ah, simplicity. Gone are the days when videogames were plug and play, when you could just boot up and start shooting, with nary a peep at the manual (if there was one at all).

But hold, what's this? Why, a simple, modest game with the flimsiest of instruction leaflets, a concise intro, and a stress-free interface that lets you dive right into the action.

But mind your head - this action pool is pretty darned shallow. You are Hercules, an investigator in Rome in 44BC. Caesar is still warm in his grave, but don't worry, they know who did that. The case at hand is the poisoning of a certain Titinius.

Prime suspect is his wife, Aurelia; you know she's innocent, but unless you can track down who really dunnit in 30 days, she's for the chop.

Play basically involves stumping round 16 different locations in the city, picking up everything you find in the hope that it will eventually become useful, and interrogating everyone in sight.

The only real choice comes in the three modes of dialogue with which you can choose to approach people.

So, no gore, no laughs, nothing terribly strategically challenging, and not even any pretty pictures to look at. The graphics are low-resolution, low-definition, low-fidelity. There are even clipping problems (remember the days when you could give monsters a high-five through the wall?).

But the voice acting is surprisingly decent. The programmers have tried to make their reconstruction of Rome accurate, and the AI is probably highly advanced - characters' attitudes towards you evolve according to previous conversations. There's also plenty of fascinating info to be had on togas and latifundia and such. But even the educational value is questionable - Cleopatra, for example, is described as "son of the king of Egypt Ptolemy XII".

If this is Montparnasse's idea of making learning fun, I'd hate to sit one of their AS level papers. (AB)

Same old game needs a good kick
FIFA 2001

Sony PlayStation £29.99 EA Sports ***
Every year, this is the UK's best-selling game, but it is getting increasingly hard to understand why.

This does not mean there is anything wrong with Fifa 2001. The problem is that it is pretty much the same as Fifa 2000, which wasn't all that big an improvement on Fifa 1999.

In fact, the most novel thing about the latest version is the powerful smell of turf you get from the scratch and sniff disc.

Turn to the packaging for help and you'll find that EA's first puff says: "Play more strategic football with the new default camera angle."

It is true, too. Fifa 2001 provides a slightly more distant view, and when you can see other players, you are more likely to pass to them.

It also makes the players a bit less detailed, but that hardly matters. Graphics junkies gave up on the PlayStation years ago.

Of course, you also get updated leagues and teams for 2001. I would have thought this was not as important in an action game as it is in more cerebral, stats-oriented foot ball management games, but this Christmas, more than 400,000 British Fifa fans could well prove me wrong. In fact, the people in EA's accounts department are probably banking on it. (JS)