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An Oriental demon has arrived in New York and recruited a massive army of street thugs to dominate the city. Only you can stop them. And who are you? Well, long ago when Japan was divided by warring states, the Shadow Warriors Secret Ninja Society was formed. Membership of the society is proved not by a special tie or weird handshake, but by knowing the Five Secret Ninjitsu Techniques: the Triple Blow Combination, Flying Neck Throw, Hang Kick, Phoenix Backflip and Tightrope Technique.

Each Shadow Warrior has four lives, each of which comprises five energy units. One or two players (one only on C64) can take on the street thugs in six American neighbourhoods before the final Demonic confrontation. The first level is set in a fairly typical street, with some tightropes to walk along. Level two has the ninja crossing busy roads with hit-and-run drivers zooming along. There's also mad bikers racing across the pavement on their Harleys. The next level takes place in neon-lit Las Vegas, then it's the Grand Canyon! All of the levels have the traditional superbaddie or two at the end, so it's as well there's five continue-plays.

Besides the unusual combat moves, Shadow Warriors is distinguished by the players being able to leap onto ledges and objects such as telephone booths, barrels and hot dog stands. If you throw a man into these objects they're destroyed, revealing icons for a sword, extra energy, lives and points. The sword is pretty nifty to use, but getting hit results in it vanishing!

Although the Amiga version has the usual pale Teque palette, it's not too bad this time, with plenty of variety and detail on the levels. More importantly, the combat moves are new and imaginative, the Flying Neck Throw being particularly impressive.

In short, this is an excellent coin-op conversion which beat-'em-up fans will love. Others may feel there isn't quite enough new stuff to get that excited about, but there's no denying this is a very well executed and enjoyable game.

The C64 version is much less technically impressive, with the enemy sprites blocky and simplistic. The background graphics start off crude as well, but improve significantly with an atmospheric New York City on level two - albeit lacking cars. Gameplay is extremely tough with strict collision detection making landing a punch irritatingly hard.

It seems impossible until you master the difficult throw technique (down and fire, despite what the instructions say). The game then becomes possible, but is acceptable rather than enjoyable.

It's a chock-a-block games market when it comes to beat-'em-ups and Shadow Warriors needs to be pretty spectacular to compete with the likes of IK+, Exploding Fist, etc, etc.

Aside from some fairly good backdrops I'm struggling to find anything good to say about the C64 game. There's little in the way of enemy sprite variation, collision detection is overly precise and only the throw move works moderately well.

The Amiga game works considerably better, with lots of coin-op style presentation, an excellent title tune and very good graphics. Despite the limited number of effective moves, it's highly playable and the two-player mode works a treat (although Phil kept thumping me by 'accident'!). Good fun, but level three is possibly too tough.

Presentation 55%
Fairly speedy multiload, but it is irritating having to reload level one when you die there. No continue-plays or presentation screens.

Graphics 62%
Disappointing enemy sprites, pale and blocky, but the backgrounds improve on later levels.

Sound 60%
Familiar Ocean beat-'em-up FX with a few tunelets before and after levels.

Hookability 52%
Difficult to get into, level one reload irritating, but once you've mastered the throw progress becomes possible...

Lastability 58%
...but while five levels provide a massive challenge, high difficulty and repetitiveness is ultimately discouraging.

Overall 57%
Not bad, but sadly lacking sufficient polish in gameplay particularly.

Presentation 83%
Great intro, replicating coin-op start-up, plus excellent continue-play screen and interlevel pictures.

Graphics 84%
Lots of variety and detail, palette a tad pale in the Teque tradition.

Sound 85%
Great intro music, varying soundtracks for each level, tunelets for continue play, game over, etc.

Hookability 87%
New moves over take a couple of goes to master...

Lastability 80%
...while six levels provide quite a challenge with each level having its own style.

Overall 83%
The best Amiga beat-'em-up in a long while.