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Fight Night offers five different modes of play - main event, construction, training, sparring and tournament.

Control of your boxer is by joystick and you are limited to eight basic moves - fake or throw a punch to the body or head, put your guard up or down, and move left or right.

Although punches never actually seem to connect, the recipient nevertheless doubles up or jerks his head back as appropriate.

To defeat an opponent in the three, three minute rounds, you must either outpoint him or knock him out.

Each time you land a blow, your score goes up and the contender's KO indicator increases. The greater the length of the KO indicator, the closer to being knocked out.

All options are selected from the title screen. The main event has you fighting five plug-ugly computer-controlled boxers, each one stronger that the last.

Construction mode allows you to create up to 24 of your own boxers.

You can select head, body, feet and shorts. Then your creation is either controlled by the computer or by a player and can balance the strengths (100 per cent split between head and body) of the power of the boxer's blow and his resistance to blows.

If the boxer is to be computer-controlled you can also adjust the balance of offensive and defensive moves and the split between action and intelligence.

Sparring mode lets you call up any two boxers to fight. You can have computer vs computer (in which case you sit back and watch), player against computer, or with a second joystick, player against player.

Training move lets you call up any boxer to punch away at a bag. You may operate in Follow or Lead mode at a selected speed, allowing you to practise joystick control as well as being able to evaluate a created boxer's power.

In Follow mode, you simply move your joystick in accordance with an illuminated position on a displayed joystick chart. In Lead mode, you can move the joystick at will.

In Tournament mode (disc only), two players can set up various boxers against each other in a knockout competition.

The graphics are of a fairly high standard, although the animation is a little on the slow and jerky side.

Presentation is excellent, from the ease of selecting the various options, to such things as the use of an admission ticket as a header screen before a contest.

Sound effects are only fair - a little bit of music and simple crashes whenever a punch lands.

All told, Fight Night provides genial, no-nonsense entertainment and is certainly the best boxing simulation around. Good humoured and good value for money.