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It's here at last! The most heavily marketed, loudly talked-about and generally most ubiquitous game in history - the C64 welcomes Street Fighter II.

Feel free to skip this bit, but for the benefit of George Mugglethorpe in Plymouth who hasn't a clue what Street Fighter II is all about, I'll furnish you with the facts in a tasteful and understated peach hue. The sequel to Street Fighter (quelle surprise), the Capcom arcade machine was a beat-'em-up extravaganza, featuring huge sprites and a range of radical moves never before seen in a fight game, as well as gorgeous graphics and great two-player head-to-head battles.

All twelve of the coin-op's fearsome characters have had their muscle-bound hides squeezed into the conversion, complete with the special moves that set the original apart from the vast universe of past beat-'em-ups. Ryu has his Dragon Punch, Guile's Sonic Boom's a real 'stunner' and the mighty Blanka's tactics are shocking. Not forgetting, of course, E Honda the Sumo wrestler, Dhaisim the Yoga master, Zangief the big Russian, Ken the arrogant twerp and Chun Li the hot babe.

When the game is loaded, you pick your fighter. There are eight to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. After making your selection, you get a brief profile of that character including height, weight, age and a list of his or her special abilities.

In one-player tournament mode the ultimate aim is to become street fighting champion and win the much-coveted title of World Warrior. Select your character, then travel to your opponent's home country. You must take on and beat seven other challengers before going up against the Grand Masters, the most formidable street fighters in the world. Your previous fights are a picnic compared to these blood-curdling contests, and there can only be one winner!

Of course, you can only get so much satisfaction from wiping the computer all over the floor. The awesome two-player mode is where Street Fighter II comes into its own - choose your characters and kick merry hell out of each other. There's a helpful handicap feature which affects how much damage each player's punches inflict, allowing a novice to contest a slightly more even brawl against someone with hours of street-fighting under their belt. It's also good for a yuk or two if you sabotage your opponent's character while they're out of the room (snigger).

When Nintendo (spit!) converted the arcade original to the SNES, their marketing machine really went into overdrive. Within weeks, Street Fighter II became the best-known video game since Space Invaders, and being able to complete it became as essential to street cred as a pair of 501's and a copy of Commodore Force under your arm. Because of the publicity, the original Street Fighter game shot to the top of our very own Commodore charts despite being a distinctly dingy offering.

In the wake of all this, it was inevitable that Street Fighter II would make it across the formats and cash in on the razzmatazz generated [It's interesting to note our Spectrum-owning buddies are getting it too - Ed].

Ever since the N-Force team (ace Europress mag for Nintendo owners) got hold of the SNES version, it's been a nightmare down by the office coffee machine. You can't even say 'good morning' without being told how they KO'd Blanka with a spinning pile driver inside B seconds, or beat M Bison without even taking a hit, only stopping to comment on how it'd never work on the Commodore. The imminent arrival of the C64 version was anticipated with some trepidation by our good selves, and on loading, our fears were realised. Gone are the scrolling backdrops - each bout takes place on a single-screen playing area. It does scroll (very slightly) vertically when a character performs a high leap, but by so little you hardly notice.

Each fighter's special moves are accessed via a combination of joystick directions followed by hitting Fire. These are tricky to master, and it hardly seems worth it when you can beat any of the computer opponents by pushing the stick towards them and repeatedly jabbing Fire. Even with two players it's not much better, with unresponsive controls reducing most contests to 'who can press the Fire button quickest' sessions.

The whole game was obviously put together in a rush to make sure it hit the shelves before the hype was forgotten. Consequently it still have glaring programming errors, e.g. computer characters sometimes climb onto scenery which isn't actually there, and the game occasionally pauses itself at the most inopportune moments. The graphics are colourful and detailed, but so poorly thought out for the most part they just look a mess.

To their credit, the programmers have crammed as many of the features of the arcade version as possible into the C64 version. But, unfortunately, they don't appear to have been given enough time. Despite this review, it'll still sell like crazy, which is unfortunate - there are plenty of better fight games about! 50%

I wasn't too critical whilst waiting for this game to appear; some laughed at the thought of the trusting C64 version, while others expected it to be startlingly similar to the SNES. Graphics-wise it's pretty much as I expected for an eight-bitter.

The sprites (though a weeny bit small) move really fast and I'm astounded at the amount of special moves included, but there's a long list of problems.

Two really bad programming faults rear their ugly heads - the game pauses on its own and computer opponents leap in the air and end up on top of the background scenery. Very poor!

The backdrop during the Vegas fight is quite harrowing, and singles competition is truly deplorable (easily completed on the first attempt). It'll sell thousands on the hype alone but, with the faults left in, it's a licence without a game. 68%

Presentation 70%
Extensive multi-load but nice character profiles.

Graphics 64%
Become confused on some levels due to too much detail.

Sound 79%
OK theme tune, standard blat effects.

Hookability 60%
Clumsy controls and cluttered graphics.

Lastability 42%
Too easy in one player, dull with two.

Overall 56%