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What did I tell you? I said don't buy Street Fighter II unless you are really desperate for a beat-'em-up. Well, all I can say is there must be a lot of desperate gamers out there. I don't like saying it, but I told you so. Believed all the hype, that's what you did. Taken in and spat out. Well, do you want to put wrongs to rights? All you have to do is buy Body Blows and maybe I'll forgive you.

Street Fighter II was the number one game over Christmas and that was all down to mass marketing, hype and advertising. It didn't matter if the game was good or bad - Street Fighter II was destined to be number one because, believe you me, there are a lot of silly people out there who don't listen. I could see it coming a long time ago, in fact I said it in the news pages when Gamer first heard about Street Fighter II that it would go to number one.

Back then I didn't know what the game was going to be like, but I had a terrible feeling in the back of my mind that it wouldn't be much good. Don't get me wrong here, I like Street Fighter II. I've played it more times than I can remember on my little brother's SNES. How any Amiga gamer could expect the Amiga version to be as good as the SNES version is beyond me [Careful... - Ed] OK, so it had fairly good graphics, but there wasn't much in the way of playability.

Team 17 haven't released as many games as US Gold, but they go for quality not quantity. So far they've managed Alien Breed, a classic Gauntlet runaround shoot-'em-up, Project X, the Amiga's best scrolling shoot-'em-up by far, and Assassin, a really amazing platform game which was knocked by many. Now there's Body Blows which Team 17 promises will be the definitive beat-'em-up on the Amiga.

Also on the way is Super Frog, a cutesy humorous platformer which could well be one of the biggest games on the Amiga since Zool. The future is looking bright for Team 17. With other companies continue pumping out their bog standard games, Team 17 keep on producing top quality arcade titles for the Amiga. This lot are smart and anyone who disagrees can step outside right now.

Beat-'em-ups are not the easiest thing to write about. When you've seen one you've seen them all. It's rather like trying to explain what a 'tree' is. What do you mean, a tree? It's a tree-thing with leaves on and sticks out of the ground. It's a tree.

The same goes for a beat-'em-up. A beat-'em-up? It's a game where your opponents kick and punch the crap out of each other until someone wins. There isn't a lot more you can say, really. Well there probably *is*, but I'd only be waffling on for no reason whatsoever.

Body Blows is incredibly fast and smooth and when I first saw it my jaw dropped open and I did a bad impression of a guppy. The game has a full 32 colour overscan display and contains loads of sound and speech that is guaranteed to impress anyone who plays it. You couldn't really ask for more in the playability department, but that's Team 17 for you.

There are three different ways you can play Body Blows. The first is one-player mode for people with no friends. In this mode you get a choice from Dan, Nik, Lo-Ray and Junior, the four "hero" characters. You then have to take your character and do battle against ever tougher opponents in an attempt to beat the evil Max and discover his terrible secret. You want to know what his secret is? Well, let's just say he likes women's clothes. Nah, only kidding, I haven't got a clue what his secret is, not having got that far yet.

The two-player option is definitely for people who have a good buddy. You have a choice of ten fighters, and as well as the aforementioned fighters, you can now choose Kassak, Mike, Maria, Dug, Yit-U and Ninja. The fight can be set up to your own options, so for instance you can change the time limit, decide how many rounds you want and fight character against character.

Another option is the tournament and it's only for people with loads and loads of friends. This mode allows four or eight human players to take part in a massive Body Blows knock-out tournament to compete for the prize of the champion's belt. This will definitely cause actual fights if you don't get the fighter you want.

In Street Fighter II, there were quite a few moves, but not as many as there are in Body Blows. Each fighter can perform 21 moves, including the ever-so-important special moves, but these depend on which fighter you want to be.

You might have five special moves if you play the part of Dug, but you'll only get two if you choose to be Yit-U.

There are a lot of moves, so common sense would say that the game would be incredibly hard to control. Well, forget common sense because playing Body Blows is so easy that even those who don't know what computers are could play it.

However, though it is easy to play, Body Blows will take a fair amount of time to master. Players will ultimately gain a lot more satisfaction from the game if they can work out all a character's moves, allowing you to totally destroy any beginners who come round to your house for a quick go. Ha ha sneaky, but worth it all the same. There you have it. I'm not going to tell you any more about the game because there isn't anything to tell. It's a beat-'em-up, remember? Time to give overall opinions, even though you know what I'm going to say.

Body Blows is the best Amiga beat-'em-up since IK+. The game just oozes class and quality, graphics are amazing, the animation of the characters is really good and there is no possible way I could fault them. Will take you a couple of seconds to play, but a lot longer to master.

The control method is fluid and very easy to use and it doesn't require gamers to use a combination of joystick moves to set off the special moves. All you have to do is hold the Fire button down and release. This is a very addictive game, especially in two-player mode because you just have to beat your mate's head to the floor once more. Of course you could always use the joystick instead. Like most beat-'em-ups Body Blows is much better when you have a few friends around and doesn't have that same air of excitement when you're say down playing it on your own.

I can't fault Body Blows, unless of course you're not fond of violence, in which case you definitely won't want it. Body Blows has everything that you would expect from Team 17. You didn't listen when I told you not to buy Street Fighter II; perhaps you'll listen when I tell you to buy Body Blows. It's body brilliant.

Great graphics, brilliant sound, amazing playability and addictive as hell.

If you're going to buy a game this month, make sure it's this one. Beat-'em-up fanatics must be over the moon.