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The interplanetary wrestling committee are staging the most bizarre wrestling match of them all. In the guise of six alien forms, ranging from bug-eyed beetle to brawny barbarian, one or two players battle it out in the intergalactic championship.

Combat takes place within a three-sided monochromatic cage under the gaze of a suitably intergalactic audience. Participants may grab, kick, hit, head butt, neck chop and throw their opponent, the objective being to stun him long enough to climb up the sides of the cage and win the match. Unless he fails to shake the climbing wrestler off the mesh, the unlucky fighter left in the ring disappears as the solid looking cage floor turns into a bottomless abyss of flashing lights.

Two energy bars indicate the status of each player's strength; momentary periods of rest give dwindling health a chance to recover. Success means promotion to a tougher match, a tougher opponent and another shot at becoming intergalactic wrestler supreme.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: poor perspective and jerky animation
Sound: a few weak white noise effects
Options: choice of six different characters. One or two players

'Pathetic is the first, and probably only printable word that sprang to my mind whilst playing Cage Match. Horribly deformed character sprites hobble woodenly around the bland, unattractive backdrop. Wrestling isn't my favourite sport at the best of times, and even this intergalactic version failed miserably to spark any sort of enthusiasm. Apart from the dire graphics, the gameplay has very limited appeal, with the combatants being limited to a few superfluous moves; your poor old character is usually on the receiving end of the physical barrage, since the computer controlled opponent consistently wipes the floor with you. Not that the game actually gives you much incentive to try. Take my advice: steer clear of Cage Match'

'Why must we continue to endure such rubbish from some Spectrum programmers? Surely they must realise a bad game when they see it? Cage Match is nothing but utter drivel. The graphics are fine until they start to move, being jerky and inaccurate. The sound is similarly pathetic, consisting of a few meagre white noise effects. And as for the game - where is it? The only way you can last in a bout is to avoid your opponent. You've no chance of beating him as the moves (I presume there are some) are impossible to access. And he recovers so quickly that you might as well not have bothered in the first place. Spectrum computers need this like an eskimo needs a fridge'