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Aaaaaannnnnddddd now, weighing in at an unfeasably large amount, it's the celtic crusher, BiiiiiiGGGG Al' Dykesssss! (fanfare, cheers, wolf whistles). And his opponent tonight, all the way from Brum, Garrrrthy 'Stubble' Sumpterrrrrrrrrrrr! (Boo, hiss, belch).

Ah yes, the SU Towers office Christmas party was a wonderous affair. All manner of cocktails and beers (non-alcoholic of course) were drunk and all sorts of boisterous male bonding type pranks were engaged in, not to mention the all the female bonding buffoonery! But then we had a lot of practice beforehand 'cos good old Codies sent us Wrestling Superstars along with a couple of bottles of pop and a note saying 'this is good'.

Basically Wrestling Superstars looks a lot like every other wrestling game we've ever reviewed. There's a ring, there's some wrestlers, there's a clock, and there's a lot of moves.

There's also no surprises and anyone who's layed their grubby, sweaty paws on WWF Wrestlemania or Tag Team Wrestling will not be in the dark as far as the fighting goes.

By pressing fire you can thump, pushing forward and pressing fire enables you to kick, pushing up and pressing fire does a knee jump and you can also bounce off the ropes and jump kick, swing your opponents in the air and throw them or pin them down. There's no lack of moves but there is a lack of real challenge, certainly in the first two fighters.

You play the part of The Darling Dude and there are four other really nasty wrestlers to defeat. The first two, Skullbasher Bob and Knuckle Buster Nick are really easy to thrash. However by the time you get to The Masked Marauder your arms begin to ache and the going gets tougher. Still, if you're determined, you'll soon finish him off along with the Golden Guy, and the game ends rather too quickly. Though this could also have be said about WWF or Tag Team.

The quality of the graphics is fairly good, nothing awe inspiring though. Basically black sprite outlines drawn on blue with a bit of black, white, yellow and red around the outside and in the power guages, what more can I say. The main sprites move quickly and look reasonably good though their thumps and kicks just don't look vicious enough.

Overall Wrestling Superstars is an amusing wrestling sim that differs little from its predecessors, except for its lack of originality. If you really need to exercise your joystick hand then it's ideal (it'll wear it out) but for reasons of lastability I wonder if this game is really worth it.

Wrestling Superstars isn't a bad wrestling simulation, there are as many moves and opponents as WWF or Tag Team, but it doesn't have the excitement of the former or the originality of the tag team option in the latter. If you really want another wrestling game, get it... but don't expect it to last more than a few hours, if that.