Remember how captivated you were by He-Man and Transformers in your youth? Twenty years later, we know they were a marketing masterstroke, aired to sell huge quantities of merchandise. So we've a touch of trepidation when we see the Bandai logo appear during the loading screens. Merchandising alert!

Fresh from wowing wide-eyed kids on prime TV spots, the Digimon have evolved onto Xbox for another round of digitised beastie-bashing. But first let us reassure you - you have not had something slipped in your drink; the banging trance music and psychedelic visuals are just the menu screen...

First, pick a fluffy character and get stuck into the single-player Career mode. Facing off with one, two or three opponents, players must fight to the death over tons of environments, or Rumble arenas. These multi-tiered environments are highly detailed and filled with platforms, pitfalls and power-ups. Use these to your advantage and knock opponents into the lava/water/steam hazard to reduce their health.

Characters have a limited repertoire of moves, and there's not much scope for impressive combos, but this simplified gameplay is instantly accessible for younger gamers. By landing enough hits and collecting DigiUp tokens, players fill their Digimeters and can then Digivolve. Your cute creature metamorphoses into a not-quite-so-cute monster with more powerful attacks. Fill it again, and you'll Digivolve into a Digimon - a robotic version of the beast, with an array of meatier, satisfying moves.

Add a wealth of more unlockable characters, engaging visuals and in particular the riotous four-way multiplayer, and Digimon is actually a reasonably entertaining kids' scrapper. The action is frenetic and there's an immensely satisfying feeling of fun battering the hell out of a cute little creature. Catering solely for younger gamers, but definitely a shift in the right direction for a more universal Xbox appeal, Digimon will finally give your little brother good reason to hog the controller for a while.

A fun and frantic beat-'em-up that translates a favourite franchise into a reasonable kiddies' title.