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The popularity of martial arts games continues unabated. Yet another has appeared on the scene, this time the follow up to the immensely successful Yie Ar Kung Fu.

For anyone who has not seen the original, you take the part of a Kung Fu fighter against a variety ofopponents.

Each adversary has his - or her - own weapons and fighting style, so defeating different villains requires different tactics.

The general idea is nevertheless simple: Hit your opponent more times than he, or she, hits you.

As might be expected, Yie Ar Kung Fu II follows the same basic idea as its forerunner. This time there are three preliminary screens in which you must dodge, kick or punch lots of flying midgets, any of which will sap your strength if you don't.

Only on the fourth screen do you actually get to meet your foe. After a while, however, I found three screens of dodging to one screen of fighting a little repetitive.

A couple of out-of-the-ordinary features are temporary invulnerability and a way of replenishing your energy. Needless to say, you earn these the hard way.

You control your man, Lee Young, using the keyboard only. Buddha be thanked, the controls are the same as for the earlier game - it would be infuriating to have to learn different sets of eight or more keys.

I'm glad to see that what I consider to be essential facilities - pause/continue, sound on/off and restart game - are all provided.

Graphically YAKF II is impressive, especially in the care taken over background detail.

Every other round brings a different backdrop, well designed and giving its own oriental atmosphere.

There are also a number of nifty small touches: The high-score table has a tasteful oriental border and when you defeat an opponent Lee Young will jump up and down with a happy smile on his face.

Movement is smooth - even when a sweet-looking young lady is throwing half a dozen knives at you.

On technical merits I would still rate Way Of The Exploding Fist as the best karate game for the BBC. YAKF II, however, has much more variety in the actual game-play and initially is easier to play. It's certainly worthy of its honourable ancestor.

Hac Man