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Karate/Kung Fu simulation games are all the rage at the moment and Yie Ar Kung Fu is the first of such games to be written for the BBC/Electron.

It features Oolong in his attempt to become a Grand-Master in the ancient skills of kung-fu in honour of his father, a Grand-Master before him. To achieve this ultimate goal, you must defeat a variety of opponents who are also eager to become a master.

Your first adversary is a very large fighter named Buchu. Not only is he adept at kicking and punching, he has mastered the art of flight. It is quite off-putting to find such a slob flying towards Oolong but, being the first, he is quite easily defeated.

The second opponent is a female warrior who is an expert at throwing shurikens (they are the metal pointed things that Ninjas throw around, in case you didn't know). The third opponent, Nuncha, carries a Nunchaku which he twirls around at great speed and strikes out at random intervals.

The next two characters, Pole and Chain, are rather unimaginatively named (no prizes for guessing the weapons they brandish in your direction!) and once dispatched make way for another lady - an X-rated exponent of the Ninjafan. The way she reveals her leg in order to kick Oolong is absolutely hilarious!

After that, you have to dispose of an opponent armed with a sword before you finally meet the last opponent and become the master. This character looks exactly like Oolong and possesses all of his skills and moves.

On top of that lot, there are bonus points to be scored by kicking or punching various objects thrown at Oolong at different heights. If you do manage to defeat all the characters, you go through the whole cycle all over again, except the fighters are more aggressive.

In all the fights, you start off with a certain amount of energy which decreases as you get hit or kicked. As expected, you have to inflict enough damage to your opponent before he thrashes you to bits. Not only are the characters very different graphically, you need to use different tactics to defeat each one (and a bit of luck as well). Because Yie Ar Kung Fu was originally devised by Konami as an arcade game, the game design is impeccable. Also, as you would expect from Imagine, very little in the way of playability has been lost during the conversion. The graphics are excellent throughout, especially the animation which is flicker-free. The key layout has been well thoguht out and considering the number of moves possible - over a dozen in all - Oolong is remarkably easy to control. I felt there could have been a little bit more in the way of sound and the order of the opponents in terms of difficulty was questionable but these minor quibbles do not detract from what is an exceptionally exciting and addictive game.

Shingo Sugiura