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Strut the landscapes, punching, kicking and blasting the seven shades out of the enemy cyborgs!

There you were, happily indulging in your pastime of space-craft flying, when, all of a sudden, the controls of your craft fused! Shtonk! Amazingly, you manage to find a suitable planet to land on. The problem is, you don't survive the crash - d'oh! Luckily, an alien entity finds your shattered body and implants your conscience into a cyborg frame. What's more, this alien scum decide to erase your memory! Aiiee!

However, the memory wipe doesn't go quite to plan, so you decide to use your new-found cybernetic powers to locate the alien entity and give it "some of that" (Note: raise your fist threateningly Harrod-style, in conjunction with the last phrase for the full effect). The only problem is, to destroy the entity you're going to have to get through legions of enemy cyborgs!

So, it's best violence trousers on and time to punch, kick and shoot the cack out of every alien that moves!

A number of arm attachments are on offer to enhance your destructive capabilities. Here's the complete low-down.

1. Normal Hand
   This pneumatically-powered arm has the ability to repeatedly hammer the opposing cyborg into submission.
2. Crusher Hand
   This spinning, spiky ball causes some severe damage to anything that gets in the way.
3. Saw Hand
   Fancy some of your opponent's weaponry? Why not just cut it off with this "handy" piece of kit?
4. Launch Hand
   Cause masses of damage with this hand that literally blasts off and pummels the opposition!
5. Laser Hand
   This attachment enables you to take out enemy cyborgs from a distance! Very useful indeed.
6. Fire Spray Hand
   A close range laser, this beast cuts through cyborgs like a hot knife through butter.

At the end of a stage, bonus points are awarded according to your performance. Categories of excellence include fair play, technical and brutality. Fair play involves putting your opponent back together again after you've defeated it - and fighting it again for a big bonus!

Plenty of punches (including uppercuts and body blows) are available for your cyborg to use along with a variety of kicks. You can also stun your opponent and pull off his arms or even his torso!

Armed with these pieces, you can either chuck them at your next opponent or attach them to yourself! Excellent.

In the Assembly Room, you're able to effectively customise your entire cyborg. You can change the sidearm your robot has and even choose the torso you want to possess. To finish off your creation, simply add the legs! A number of different models are on offer, detailed further in this very review.

To test your creation, enter the Test Room and test away! Your cyborg performs exactly as it does in the main game.

During the level, you encounter strange whirlpools in the ground! These whirling atrocities glue you to the spot, enabling enemy cyborgs to kick the cack out of you! Even more damaging is being glued to the spot and being hit by a medium-size cruise missile!

Change the legs of your cyborg and add a number of strange new attributes to its performance.

1. Jogging Legs
   The bog-standard legs for your machine, with a fair degree of speed at their disposal.
2. Pneumatic Legs
   Clear those massive chasms with ease using these enhanced legs. Very useful.
3. Big Foot Legs
   These aren't quite as speedy as the logging legs, but inflict more damage.
4. Tank Legs
   For that quick getaway, make use of this set of legs that transform you into a speedy tank!
5. Somersault Legs
   Add a new move to your attack repertoire: a deadly spinning somersault!
6. Spiked Legs
   A lot cooler than the jogging legs, this pair increases the damage caused by your knees. Oof!

I love Cyborg Justice - it's great! The graphics are astonishing. The level of detail on the sprites and the amazingly life-like animation (bested only by Flashback) make this a visually gorgeous game. There's a lot in it too!

It takes you ages to master all of the weapons and the various moves. Just when you think you've mastered it all, you suddenly find yourself picking up your opponents and chucking them about, or yanking off your enemy's arms and making use of them yourself - brilliant!

Cyborg Justice just gets better when another player decide to join in. The two-player action is great - the amount of fluid, high-speed action is simply unbelievable. If there is a fault with the game, it's down to the lack of backdrops and interaction with the scenery.

Still, this is a miracle for a four megabit cartridge - I can only think of how good it would've been if a whole eight meg were available. Any road up, as it is, Cyborg Justice is a superb beat-'em-up - get it!

Like Ecco The Dolphin, Cyborg Justice happens along with the same type of ground-breaking ingredients that have contributed to Ecco's enormous success. Though the title may suggest a predictable game based around some sad, platform roaming or side-scrolling journeying character the truth is refreshingly different.

From a distance, the game looks average, perhaps quite dull. However, after experiencing the high level of control over this cyborg, I am hopelessly hooked! Really! I mean, but it first and read this later, it's that good!

For those still in doubt, let me tell you of the incredible animation and then of the superb feeling gained from successfully wrenching an opponent's arm from the socket and clobbering it smartly over the head.

Though the backdrops may lack detail, they provide the right amount of atmosphere to what is, nevertheless, a visual feast! The Ecco team have also honoured their recently established reputation for quality soundtracks here. In place of the expected, often tacky themes usually on offer there is a succession of tasteful and relevant strains that complement the action perfectly.

Cyborg Justice is one high-class title that is currently without competition from anything remotely similar. The action found in Streets Of Rage II even seems quite limited by comparison. Buy this as soon as is humanly possible!

Presentation 90%
P. A vast range of options are available, including different difficulty levels, arcade or duel modes and the option to increase your lives. A fab intro sequence kicks the game off.

Graphics 96%
P. Cyborg Justice has sprites that are amazingly animated and superbly detailed. The variety in the characters' moves is a marvel to behold.
N. There are only five different backdrops.

Sound 78%
P. There are some decent crunching effects when robot fist meets cyborg hide!
N. The music is a touch on the sad side at times.

Playability 92%
P. Getting to grips with your Cyborg takes a while, but has you addicted to the Megadrive as you try out each combination of weaponry and then actually tackle the game!

Lastability 87%
P. The task is challenging, but leave the Easy setting alone. However, the two-player and duel mode more than makes up for that.
N. Don't touch that difficulty setting until you've finished on Normal.

Overall 90%
Cyborg Justice is a superb beat-'em-up, with tons of extra weaponry, superb moves and addictive gameplay - for one or two players! We promise you won't see anything like this again for quite a while!