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If you think it's not safe to walk the streets now, you should try the Earth of the future. A gigantic meteor has basically pranged the planet beyond all recognition, wiping out most life and awakening seven dinosaur-like gods. The remaining humans worship these Godzilla wannabes, who spend most of their time kicking each other's butts for supremacy of the planet they call 'Urth'. OK, that's the story. What we've actually got is the Jurassic slugfest coin-op stripped down for the humble Game Gear. Choose your deadly dino (and they range from a firebreathing allosaur to a hopping mad monkey with a deadly 'power puke') and stomp all over the world's new continents with scant regard for personal safety.

The numerous unpleasantries you'll encounter in your mission to teach these foul-breathed rapscallions some manners include 'the blow torch', 'the jugular bite', 'the brain basher' and 'the flying butt-slam'. And that doesn't even begin to address the dangers of 'hornication'...

Another one-on-one beat-'em-up, or should that be maul-'em-up?

Flick your tail and nash your molars until your opponent dies in a bloody mess.

It's a relief to be able to play a beat-'em-up with something other than a couple of geezers in martial arts clobber, and something of a wonder that no-one thought of this twist sooner.

Having said that, while clawing and rampaging my way through this, it occurred to me that beat-'em-ups employ chaps and chapesses to do the dirty work for good reason - they have arms and legs. Tails, teeth and toxic burps don't quite cut it in comparison.

This no-frills Primal Rage adaptation preserves the ideas that made the original popular with those suffering from beat-'em-up fatigue, but loses the extras that might keep you coming back when you've explored each fighter's character.

Still, if the opportunity to eat your opponent once you've stomped on his head appeals to you as much as it does to me, then this will do the business.

You might think this goes as far on the Game Gear as you can go, and you'd be right. No one can grumble about the sprites or the range of actions in the game. But, like Marcus, I don't think the game works or plays as well on this format as it does on the Megadrive.

The small screen area and limited animation takes most of the fun away. The Megadrive version, on the other hand, is superb.

Graphics 85%
P. Effectively sacrifices the backgrounds to keep the dinosaurs looking faithful.

Animation 78%
P. Pretty good. Digitised from latex glove puppets, apparently.

Music 62%
P. The Game Gear symphony orchestra strikes again.

Effects 58%
P. Tail swishes and flying leaps sound OK.
N. Biting sounds more like a swipe with a frying pan.

Playability 80%
P. Lots of satisfying touches, and the novel scenario, add to the appeal of the gory gameplay.

Lastability 73%
P. The differing characters of the dinosaurs keep things interesting for a while.
N. The novelty wears off.

Overall 83%
An old dog's been taught some new tricks. Fun while it lasts.