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Would this be like one of my all-time favourite arcade games, Punch-Out?! Er, no. This is a very, very simple boxing game.

It puts you in the ring to face either a friend or computer opponent. You view the ring at rope level with the boxers being shown in profile. At the start of each of the four one-minute rounds, the boxers are placed in their respective corners. When the bell sounds they move out and you take control of one of them. You can move your man forwards and backwards only, making this effectively a 2D game.

You hit your opponent by pressing the fire button and moving the joystick either left or right for left or right hook. If you want to put your guard up, then press fire button and push up. There are no other actions possible: no body blows, no ducking.

As you hit your opponent, you will see a bar increasing above his corner. When this grows to its full extent and reaches the KO mark, your next hit will knock him out and win you the game. But the rate at which the bar grows depends on his stamina, which alters from game to game.

The idea of the game is to win the World Heavyweight title. First you have to win the European Heavyweight title by beating the computer opponent three times - each time you challenge him he gets harder to beat. Having done this, you are given a password and you have to load the other side of the cassette.

To win the world title you go through exactly the same rigmarole as the European title fights, but if at the end of the third round you have a knockout win, you're given the title of Heavyweight Champion of the world.

This game is graphically very impressive but sound, like gameplay, is highly disappointing: only a good bell sound and a whop as a boxer is hit.

How disappointing this game was, after seeing the initial screen shots. The gameplay I found incredibly limited and ends up being really repetitive. The weird loading also seems rather pointless, as your opponents don't change drastically.

Knockout is an appropriately titled game - it certainly put me to sleep. The best thing about this game was the bell noise, but there was little else in the way of sound. The large, anaemic boxers were simple to look at and control, and the game became boring very quickly.

I remember a little Casio calculator boxing game which had more movement potential and challenge than this. Don't be mislead by the nice graphics - this is a very poor boxing game indeed. I'd advise anyone to wait till the boxing games from Elite and US Gold come out before buying this one.

Presentation 73%
Well done title screen and instructions.

Originality 64%
New sport simulation but little new gameplay.

Graphics 66%
The boxers are large and quite well animated.

Hookability 46%
It's too repetitive and easy to get you going.

Sound 27%
The sound of a punch and the bell but nothing else.

Lastability 24%
Not enough game content to make you come back for long.

Value For Money 31%
More variety and game flexibility are needed.