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I was one real bad dude. A man living on the edge... On the brink... On thin ice. I lived life to the max. But even I was surprised when I was picked up from the gutters by the master of some mumbo-jumbo Dojo and whisked thousands of miles around the globe to the Land of the Rising Sun to learn the secret arts of Bo (The Big Stick), Nunchuka (Rice Flails of Destruction), Karate (Fists of Steel) and Kendo (Big Sticks and Metal Masks).

I figured that this Jap master dude owed my Pa some kind of debt, and getting me to fight in the world tournaments - the Budokan - was his way to even the score. When I got to the Dojo thinks started to get tough. For each of the four martial arts I'm learning, there are nearly 40 moves to be finely honed to perfection.

I have to learn to use my mind as well as my fists in combat. Sometimes the steam-roller approach pays off, but for some of the harder dudes in the Budokan it's best to build up your ki level and floor your opponent with two or three ki-filled blows.

Megadrive Budokan is simply a straight port across of the fabbo Amiga beat-'em-up of the same name. The graphics are just as brilliant as the 16-bit game, but the sound isn't quite so impressive - even though there's plenty of sampled speech (Japanese, of course) and realistic yelps of pain.

The two-player option has been retained as well which makes for hours of one-on-one chopsocky fun. Bashers beware, though, because Budokan isn't a straightforward pummel-the-opponents beat-'em-up. Balacing ki and stamina levels requires a good deal of thought, but it is essential to making blows count.

I found this strategy element makes for an even better game, though, and when you add to that the huge variety of moves available on each of the four disciplines, I think you'll find that Budokan is a thumpin' good beat-'em-up.