Tricky beat-'em-up

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Joe Blade II is, unsurprisingly, the sequel to Joe Blade, a game which I thoroughly enjoyed when it was released a short while back. This new version is very similar to the original and features that teenage pin up and pop idol, media celebrity, hero of the people, defender of the flag and helper of those less fortunate than himself - or so the cassette inlay claims - Joe Blade.

In this latest romp you are again in control of the do-gooder and your task is to clean up the streets of London circa 1995. No, you're not a garbage collector - though you'll find several dustbins which can be collected on your travels - you are a one man police force out to reduce the rapidly increasing crime rate.

The city has gone to the dogs since 1989 and the place is crawling with muggers, skinheads, punks and the like. Anyone who ventures out into the back streets and alleyways is likely to be pounced on and given a severe beating, not to mention being robbed to boot.

Your task is to patrol the city keeping a sharp lookout for shady characters and signs of trouble. Any punks you come across on your beat must be disposed of by leaping up Kung-Fu style and booting them in the head. They then disappear in a cloud of dust, but there always seem to be more just around the corner.

The aim is to do away with 60 or so punks and rescue 16 citizens. You'll come across the latter every now and then as you walk around.

Like the original game, the graphics are superbly detailed and the playing window - which occupies the major part of the screen - shows a 3D side-on view. You can walk left and right and through alleyways into and out of the screen. As you move on to the next screen it rapidly flicks up - there's no scrolling here.

Apart from punks, you'll come across clocks which give you extra time to clean up the city - you've got just 10 minutes - and dustbins, for which I've yet to find a use.

On encountering a citizen the screen clears and up pops one of four types of puzzle. All involve re-ordering a mixed up list of the numbers one to four. Sounds easy, but you can only swap certain pairs of numbers, and this pair is rapidly changing. To make things even harder the numbers are displayed as strange hieroglyphics and there's a time limit too.

If you don't succeed you are dead meat and have to start all over again. I found this part extremely difficult and it spoilt the game slightly.

Joe Blade II is a bit too like the original game in many respects and if you have that I would suggest you try this version before buying it. If however, you haven't seen Joe Blade in action it's an entertaining - if at times frustrating - game that will keep you amused for many an hour. Well worth a look.

Roland Waddilove