Parents and schools are among those backing the computer renaissance, highlighting the obvious educational possibilities of programmable machines with proper keyboards, but there's a more glamorous side to computing too Ð many of the records currently holding down high spots in the pop charts are made largely by the use of Amigas and Atari STs, using high-specification, professional-quality sequencing and sampling programs that are nonetheless simple enough for anybody to use.

While computer software always been much cheaper than that for consoles (£10-£30 rather than £40-£60), the off-putting factor for many buyers used to be the comparatively high price of the initial hardware. This, however, isn't the problem it used to be - recent massive price drops have seen the musician's favourite machine (the Atari ST) fall to less than £150 for the basic model, while superb games host the Amiga 600 can now be picked up for under £199, with some older styles of Amiga dramatically cheaper even than that. There's never been a better time to grow up and get into the real thing - get yourself a computer!

SUPER BOMBERMAN (Hudson Soft, for SNES, £45)
If you've been watching Newsnight recently, or any of several other bits of nasty media scaremongering, you might be under the impression that playing video games can turn you into a sad, lonely, violent individual who spends all his time locked away in his bedroom with the curtains closed and isn't capable of interaction with other real human beings to save his life. Well, if that's a scenario that's been keeping you awake at night, you've got two courses of action open to you. Either you can get hold of a gun, nip round to your local McDonalds and slaughter everybody you can see (hey, if you've paid the fine, you might as well commit the crime), or you can take the slightly less expensive and less dangerous route of buying a Super Multitap adaptor and a copy of this game. Super Bomberman is a fabulous maze-based romp featuring little robots running around dropping bombs to blat bad guys,and it's all jolly good fun, but where it really shines is as a four-player game, when you and three of your mates get locked into a single-screen maze together, with the one left alive at the end the winner. This battle mode is probably the most fun you'll ever have with your console, and if you don't try it at least once, you'll never know what you're missing. If you thought Super Mario Kart was a laugh, Super Bomberman will blow your mind. 92%

WWF ROYAL RUMBLE (Acclaim, for SNES, £50)
WWF games always sell by the truckload no matter how good or (usually) awful they are, so it's a bit of a relief to play one that's actually going to be worth the massive sales it'll doubtless clock up. WWF Royal Rumble is a one or two-player game, but each player controls a tag-team of up to three wrestlers. The referee from the first SNES WWF game has mysteriously done a runner, so the way is clear for all manner of sneaky underhand tactics (including the chokehold and the eye-gouge), as well as all the usual moves, which this time include each wrestler's speciality hold. The biggest entertainment in WWF Royal Rumble, though, comes when the wrestling rulebook goes completely out of the window and all six wrestlers pile in for one gigantic ruck in and out of the ring, with bodies and ringside furniture flying everywhere. It's complete mayhem, and while the game isn't a lot of fun with only one player, the two-player mode just about makes it worth the investment on its own if you're a grappling devotee. With a lot of money. 78%

TECMO CUP FOOTBALL (Sega, Mega Drive, £40)
Here's something a little bit different - a football role-playing game. It's not often you see something truly original appearing on a console, but I can safely say I've never seen a game like this before. Manga-type graphics depict soccer action in fine style, but instead of controlling things with the joypad in the traditional manner, you select one from a choice of moves at each point in the game. There's more, too - each player has a special move, Street Fighter 2-style, which he can use a limited number of times during the game and which has to be countered by the opponent using one of his own specialities. Everything moves amazingly quickly for what's basically a strategy game, and it's well worth checking this one out for novelty value alone, but it's pretty top fun in any case. Strange and interesting. 80%

AMAZING TENNIS (Absolute, Mega Drive, £40)
Wimbledon will probably be over by the time you read this, but if you feel like re-enacting the whole thing on your Mega Drive, there's a whole range of tennis sims hitting the streets right now for you to try your serving finger against. Amazing Tennis looks a bit different to all the rest, with a viewpoint that's right down on the ground behind the serving player's feet, and it's a bit difficult to get used to, but with some practice you'll soon have the hang of it. The thing is, it doesn't really add anything to the game - it seems to have been used more as an excuse to show off the fancy animation on the players rather than for any gameplay-enhancement reasons. Still, as tennis games go, this one's alright, with decent graphics and sound and some particularly nice speech synthesis on the umpire's voice. It's just that you could do a whole lot better. 71%