And perhaps more importantly, is the whole CD thing just a giant white elephant anyway? Nintendo don't seem to think there's much in it, and they're not known for turning their back on opportunity in the video games market. Sales of the Mega CD so far have been less than stunning, and most people have been disappointed by the software released for the machine (with the exception of Thunderhawk and the soon-to-come Silpheed). Indeed, all of the big Sega games for the autumn and Christmas period look like being ordinary Mega Drive titles Ð Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Aladdin and so on are all standard cartridge games, with Mega CD stuff being more or less left to its own devices, hype-wise.

But CD is still all but certain to be the way forward for the video game industry. There's a huge weight of muscle behind it from software houses, who love the increased profit margins (a CD costs about £1 to manufacture, compared to more like £10 for a cartridge, but they can more or less get away with charging the same price for one, citing "increased development costs" to fill up the vast 650-megabyte storage space on a CD. For comparison, the biggest cartridge games ever take up 24 megabits, which is just 3 megabytes) and the practical impossibility of piracy on CD formats, and the full-motion video games which are eternally popular with Virtual Reality fanatics aren't viable on any other medium. Many of the major companies in the industry are also heavily involved with the forthcoming 3DO system, which boasts the most impressive specifications on a games machine ever, and they won't want to see it fail for want of pushing CD as the new hip way to play games. So get used to it - CD is the only way forward. I'd buy that CD32 now, if I were you.



DIGGERS (Amiga CD32, Millennium)
The first game for the Amiga's impressive new CD32 console isn't going to be one that shifts enormous amounts of hardware for the troubled Commodore - at first glance, it doesn't look like anything you couldn't do on a bog-standard A500. Diggers is a fairly complex strategy game based on that great staple of video-game plots, mining. (Er...) You control a company attempting to make a fortune digging valuables out from various sectors of an alien planet, while simultaneously trying to put your rivals out of business. It's very forbidding to get into, but if you master the controls (and that's a big 'if'), you'll find a massive and engrossing game. All the same, as a flagship for the new machine, Diggers leaves a lot to be desired. (But then again, look how long it took the Mega CD to get any decent software...) 77%

JURASSIC PARK (SNES, Ocean)
Undoubtedly the biggest game hype of the summer (with one exception - see below), Jurassic Park looks like justifying its near-certain colossal sales - on some formats, at least. The SNES version is the first one to be finished, and it features a game design broadly the same as the forthcoming Amiga and PC versions. Half of the game is an overhead-view arcade adventure with Gauntlet overtones, while the other half is a first-person 3D maze game set inside the various areas of Jurassic Park's Visitor Centre. Velociraptors are the main enemy, but you'll see most of the beasts from the movie at one point or another in a game which is remarkably faithful to the feel of the movie, if not the actual storyline. There's a good balance between problem-solving in the outdoor sections and the tense, atmospheric 3D bits, which are also punctuated by sudden bursts of frantic action and scary firefights as you round a corner to find a set of slavering teeth staring you in the face. A pretty good effort all round, this. 84%

JURASSIC PARK (Mega Drive, Sega)
Ooh no. The Mega Drive version of Spielberg's blockbusting epic (etc) is nothing like the SNES game, in fact it's pretty much a rewrite of US Gold's recent Flashback, only half as fast and a tenth as good. The graphics are smart but it's a complete nightmare to play, and when there's a lot happening on the screen it all but grinds to a halt completely. You'd have to have a brain the size of a stegosaurus's to consider forking out money for this. 40%

MORTAL KOMBAT (SNES, Mega Drive, Acclaim)
Hyped beyond belief in the last few months, Acclaim's conversion of the hugely popular Midway coin-op carries a heavy weight of expectation on its shoulders as it squares up against the Mega Drive and SNES versions of Street Fighter 2 - Champion Edition (under whatever titles they've got this week). Sadly, though, Mortal Kombat just hasn't got the gameplay to carry it off - all the fighters have more or less the same moves, which makes things pretty dull in two-player mode, and in one-player mode it's so easy you'll finish it on your first go. And adding insult to injury, the SNES version doesn't include the thing which made the arcade game so popular in the first place Ð the blood and guts. The splatters of plasma have been replaced by what looks like clouds of dandruff, and the goriest of the infamous 'Death Moves' have been replaced by wimpier alternatives. The hype will ensure this sells, but six months from now nobody will even remember what it was called. SNES version 66%, Mega Drive version 71%