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Thai boxing is supposed to be 'an exciting mixture of boxing and karate'. Anyway, read on for my unbiased opinion.

The game is for joystick only, and just as well: I would rather take out my anger on my poor Quickshot II than my sensitive 6128 keyboard. [Please, Ed, give me a joystick like yours.]

The faces at the top of the screen show any prospective Thai boxers what long-term effects are caused by combat sports. You must beat your opponent by kicking or punching his head or stomach. You can block his kicks and punches, but as you progress through the levels, you will realise that your defence becomes less effective. I have not yet been able to beat him at level three, and have become more and more infuriated.

The tape version is organised such that once you have beaten your opponent twice at any level, the next level is loaded from tape and you cannot return to a previous level. This is good if you wish to complete the game, but after successive beatings, you really do wish to fight an easier adversary every now and again to build your confidence back up.

While you are fighting your opponent, the states of his face and yours are shown at the top of the screen along with energy level. If you see your energy rapidly depleting; back off and rest for a short while.

The backgrounds to this game are by no means stunning. I felt that because they are loaded in from tape, rather then all held :n memory at once, they could not only have depicted more, like Xeno, but that they could possibly have had some, albeit slight, animation. Furthermore, if you were not expecting more tape to load and your cassette player had no motor control, you could easily waste ten minutes trying to rewind to the correct tape position.

The graphics are not good, and the action is almost non-existent. The fighters are boring and not well animated. The sound is pathetic, made only marginally better by the tune played throughout the title page.

I did not like Thai Boxing - and would have been sore if I had paid nine quid for it.

Thump-thump thump thump-thump-thump thump! Are you sick yet? I certainly am. How many more of these combat games must we put up with? I could have liked this one were it not for the annoying way that once onto a higher level you must remain there until beating the next set of opponents (which by the third level becomes impossible). It is also necessary to have a coffee-break while it loads in the next background.

There are a couple of good bits: the title music; watching the boxers' faces become bloodier and bloodier. But this pales into insignificance once you realise how boring and repetitious it all becomes.

Beat opponent once on level three.

Ever felt 'green' before?

P. Nice title-page tune.
P. Nice loading screen.

N. Horrible sound effects.
N. Terrible action sequence and animation.
N. No possibility for playing from start level.
N. Each new background loaded from tape.