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Sai Combat is based on the ancient martial art of Sai karate where the Sai weapon is used to beat up your opponent. This is a twist to the normal martial arts game where you are restricted to kicking him where it hurts to bring him down.

As far as the game goes, you use the joystick in the same manner as a hundred other combat games - move stick with no fire button to move, press fire and move joystick and you strike a blow.

As well as using this great piece of wood to bludgeon your opponent, you can do all the other things that homicidal Japanese computer characters do - kicking and sweeping.

The object of the game is to work your way up the various levels to become a Sai master. This is done by defeating an opponent at each level, points are awarded for each blow. A certain number of points will cause a fall; after a number of falls one of you will lose, and you progress onto the next level.

The graphics are quite reasonable, and the animation up to standard. I found the gameplay a bit boring after a while, as on the lower levels, identical repeated blows will dispose of an opponent quite swiftly - all you have to do is to find the right type of kick and you are away.

Apart from the slight change in tack with the introduction of pickaxe handles for both beligerents, this game is no better or worse than a million other martial arts games.

Mirrorsoft has to be congratulated though on finding a martial art that no-one else seems to have dug though - hence one point for originality (more than they would have got otherwise). One day software houses will direct some of their vast resources to producing really original games, with luck and avoiding smoking, I should still be around then...