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Mega City One is a teeming metropolis chock full of weird creatures. Keeping control of the citizens of the massive conurbation takes considerable time, manpower and, inevitably, ruthlessness. The honest policeman has been transformed into the judge - an enforcer who needs no jury to deal with the Big Meg dwellers - and Judge Dredd is the best judge ever to pass out of the Judge Academy.

The game is essentially a shoot-'em-up. You control Dredd as he carries out various missions allocated to him by Justice Central. These take differing gameplay formats depending upon the location of the crime. There are six levels in all, with each level made up of two sections.

Level one is set in, er, the Dantanna block, where it seems the fatties are running amok, gorging themselves on food. You've got to wipe out all the food dispensers in order to calm the fatties down. Once you've destroyed a number of these overweight chaps in their white shirts, you find that they've taken over a food convoy.

There's a total of twelve missions to complete and these continue in much the same vein. A mad professor in a laboratory, a runaway sludge truck and a rogue weather station all conspire to ruin Dredd's day. The worst of the adversaries are definitely the malevolent and downright naughty Dark Judges.

You move Judge Dredd using the joystick, while the left Shift key enables you to choose between lasers and heat-seeking bullets for his Lawgiver gun. Pressing the Spacebar summons the Lawmaster bike, although it's impossible to fire while you're astride it.

Considering that Judge Dredd is a cartoon character, you'd assume the graphics should be important. Visually, Judge Dredd fails, because it doesn't make enough of the cartoon style. The character's animation is very average - he sometimes looks as if he's moonwalking - though the scrolling is smooth and seamless and the backdrops attractive and eye-catching. Sound is below average, a definite case for turning that volume right down.

Judge Dredd fails. A game based around this character should have been a rich and funny romp through Mega City One, but instead it's a poor and thoroughly comatose glance at the city and at Dredd. The game is simply a shoot/beat-'em-up, based on other platform games; walking around and shooting things is as far as it gets. There are some nice touches: you can play two sub-games, bomber and snakes in the initial section of the game, for instance. However these alone don't save Judge Dredd for joining the other mediocre licences in our circular filing cabinet.