As far as sequels go, most good films and games will end up having a rather poor follow-up. It's sod's law. Take Police Academy for example. There's not just one duff sequel, but six of the little buggers. *Six* more films about a bunch of coppers who screw up an assignment, before they discover that they actually succeeded and everything turns out all right. In computer game terms, however, nothing can even come close to the sequel-tastic Megaman.

The metal-armed one has appeared in countless games (Capcom even started the first SNES game at ten, so the NES sequels could catch up!), with his spud gun-esque arm weapon and his snazzy blue suit. The big surprise is that, having been the rock in Nintendo's third party platform department, Capcom decided to release the Megaman games on a Sega format, first on Megadrive, and now on Saturn. What isn't a surprise however, is that the format of this sequel remains exactly the same as the others...

Megaman (as it's known in Europe) first appeared on the NES many moons ago, and spawned numerous sequels. This is one of those sequels.

Kill a dictator and his henchmen, destroy their minions etc. You know the score.

In previous incarnations of Megaman, he faced his mesmeric task alone, choosing to take on all comers with norhing but his bare hands (and the aforementioned spun guns). But in this game he benefits from the ability to change into another mega dude (!), who answers to the name of Zero.

And he's a bit of a flash git to boot. Sporting long golden locks and an awesome power sword thing, he holds more strength than original Megaman, and can take more hits. However, he can't be selected to fight against the bosses, and he is only selectable once every level. Oh, and he only has one life.

We're slipping into Mega CD territory here. An old game ported over to a more powerful machine, and all that the programmers do to 'improve' it is throw in the gratuitous intro sequence and a few flashy animation screens. And Megaman is no different.

Every time you select a boss to battle against, you are rewarded with a short manga style cartoon showing who you are trying to kill, and their style of background.

In case you're worried about getting too annihilated, then there is another add-on to Megaman's armour that provides slightly more protection than anything with wings. The bipedal walkers are giant droids that Megaman can sit in to ease his progress. Once one of the correct items have been used, the bipedlars become active, and ready for some mass destruction.

When it comes to Megaman, the first thing many people (including me) think of is Nintendo, and the NES. It doesn't exactly insprire confidence, does it? Which is why, with the added power of Saturn, I was keeping one eye open for this. And now? Well, I think that this should have stuck to the SNES and NES, because it's utter dross.

I like my games to have a little difficulty to them, but this game goes from impossible, to bloody impossible, and then ridiculous. If this wasn't bad enough, the game is too similar in all of the levels and quickly becomes repetitive. And probably the most shocking thing to come out of this is that the graphics and sound appear as though they've been ported straight over from the SNES version without any enhancement.

All that remains to be said is that Megaman X3 is a travesty that only serves to tarnish the otherwise impressive Megaman record.

While I didn't find this quite as challenging as Steve, I found it just as dull. The game's certainly from a fine pedigree, but this really isn't the sort of title you expect to see in such a comparatively primitive form on the Saturn.

Retro enthusiasts, desperate platform junkies and Megaman completists will doubtless go for this, but everyone else would be wise to wait for a low-priced UK release before even considering it.

Graphics 59%
N. We couldn't spot any major differences between this and the SNES version!

Animation 66%
P. The manga type bits are nice touches.
N. But again, nothing notably improves on the SNES.

Music 54%
P. Not bad really, typical platform stuff.

Effects 60%
N. Explosions, shots and clunks of metal. Nothing new there.

Playability 58%
N. Because of the difficulty setting, you won't want to play this at all.

Lastability 55%
P. Hard as nails!
N. But just as boring and frustrating. Some sections are unbelievably hard.

Overall 57%
What could have been a nice addition to the Saturn platform canon has turned out to be nothing more than a straight SNES conversion. Oh dear.