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As Confucius once said, "Never undersell yourself." Or was that Yoda? Actually, it could have been Victor Kiam. Whoever it was, he knew a thing or two. So if you produced one of the hottest games ever on the CPC featuring a martial-arts hero with a bionic arm which can be fitted with a massive range of futuristic weaponry, would you call it Switchblade? That sounds more like a licence of West Side Story!

But, what's in a name, eh? Switchblade is superb and, frankly, any name other than Buy This Game, It's Amazingly Brilliant And Everybody Should Own It (Yes, even Terry Venables) would be underselling it.

Hiro (which, strangely, sounds a bit like hero) is the cyberpunk star of the show. He's the bloke I was telling you about, armed with the impressive, er, arm. He's the last of the Bladeknights (whoever they were) and he's got a rather important task to carry out. Y'see there's this geezer called Havok who's been the evil dictator of the planet Thraxx since he shattered the mighty Fireblade into 16 pieces. Hiro reckons the best way to bring him down a peg or two is to reassemble the sword. If I was Thraxx, I'd be worried. This Hiro guy is a hell of a fighter. Apart from his Swiss-army cyber-arm, he's also a martial arts expert.

The action starts on the surface of Thraxx, but most of the game takes place in the caves beneath the planet. It's a massive Rick Dangerous style platform romp. Under your expert guidance, Hiro has to explore this subterranean, flip-screen world searching for the bits of the sword.

Pick-ups will either increase Hiro's cyber-arm capabilities, increase his energy or give him extra lives (the usual stuff, really). Baddies come in all varieties, from Schwarzenegger-style gladiators to scorpions, plus some impressive end-of-level guardians; not that there are levels as such, but there are points at which you can't progress further unless you blast the bigger baddies.

The control system is weird at first, but when you get used to it, you realise that it suits the game perfectly. Walking and jumping is achieved with the direction controls, which is fairly standard, but hitting, kicking or firing weapons is more than a case of pressing the fire button. There's a strength bar at the bottom of the screen; the longer you press Fire, the more strength you build up. Hiro will strike out in different ways - punch, kick or swing kick - depending on how much strength has built up before you let go of the Fire button. It he has a weapon strapped to his cyber-arm, more strength enables him to blast away more rapidly.

Okay, so the animation isn't the best ever witnessed on the Plus, but the backgrounds are brilliantly detailed and the sprites are impressive. Unfortunately, the graphics are about the only enhancement this cart has over the cassette version of the game. Disappointingly, it's no faster and the layout of the platforms and the positioning of the baddies are identical. Which is a shame because, while I can wholeheartedly recommend the game itself, I wouldn't recommend you buy it on cart because the cassette version is just as good.