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The kiddies' TV shows are now at an all-time low. Whoever thought that the Power Rangers was a good idea deserves to be shot, and then the pillock who came up with this warrants nothing less than decapitation and a severe kicking. GMTV is a daft enough programme already without crappy rubber-costumed monsters beating up sad actors. Now all you early risers can play the game as well as watch the programme. Awesome.

As you would expect, the creative genius behind VR Troopers could think of nothing better to program than a one-on-one beat-'em-up. Whilst they were on the crest of a creative brainwave, they decided to throw in a story mode as well, bring the number of fresh and new ideas up to none. This then led to the versus mode and the fresh, exciting game ideas finally ran dry.

Each character has three special moves that are executed by a familiar series of button presses, but should you own a six button pad, the need for D-pad moves flows down the drain, as all the moves can be done using X, Y and Z. So we are left with the most brilliant beat-'em-up of the year. Maybe.

If you choose to fight in the story mode then only the three VR Troopers are selectable. You get to choose each of them before every fight, enabling a bit of variety in the character department. But if the versus mode is chosen, then all of the characters from the game are open for battle, complete with all the special moves.

This astonishingly bland punch marathon is so uneventful that it leaves you plenty of time to ponder how much beat-'em-ups have progressed since this was conceived.

If you must buy this, do your pondering over the pretty psychaedlic intro backgrounds. They're more fun than the game.

It must have been my lucky day when this and Power Rangers landed in the office. I thought, "I know, I'll ignore Virtua Cop, VF 2 and Sega Rally and play VR Toppers instead."

What a waste of time this is! Dire gameplay, no fun at all and no lastability coupled with poor graphics and dodgy sound make this a sure-fire flop. I cannot see why any sane person would buy this instead of MK3, and even fans will be severely disappointed.

Take it away and don't bring it back.

Graphics 48%
Some good variety but not great.

Animation 40%
Each character has about two frames.

Music 52%
Annoying. Weak. Poor.

Effects 43%
No good punch sounds. Or anything else for that matter.

Playability 40%
So dull and boring. No excitement whatsoever.

Lastability 45%
You won't want to play this twice.

Overall 45%
An unbelievably poor title with absolutely no redeeming features.