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The year is somewhere far into the future. Nowadays it's not Christians vs lions the public clamour to see - it's giant robots fighting it out in glorious gladiator style for a bit of glory in the illustrious Robotop. If you thought Metal Mickey was fearsome, tell Auntie about the guys in Metal Master - they're big and mean.

You can either choose an established robot from the Robotop hall of fame or start afresh and customise your own. After choosing your robot, you enter an inventory screen showing the various bolt-on gadgets you can buy if you make enough dough.

Each piece of hardware has a particular strength and resistance to damage, and a status bar shows its current condition. As you fight, the general wear and tear on body-parts is indicated by status falling, and you must replace any part before its status falls to zero. This of course also costs money. Unfortunately, if you're just starting out, you have to make do with the basics until you earn some cash. When you're returned to the inventory screen after each visit to the arena, you can also sell your current equipment as a way of making a fast buck, but you're bound to lose out since stuff depreciates after just one battle.

Once you've made your choice of weapons and gadetry, you move on to the construction screen where you bolt your robot together. Fortunately, the game prevents you making a fool of yourself here and you never end up getting into the arena with no legs or two heads.

Click on OK and the battle commences. You and your opponent enter the futuristic arena via two lifts, one on either side of the screen. For long range attack, press Fire and select either lasers or missiles using the joystick. The real fun, though, starts at close range. Here you can use all that gadgetry - Smashers, Cleavers and Claws, to name a few. You can guide your robot in all directions and even make it crouch to deliver its blows.

At the bottom of the screen, icons illustrate the location and extent of damage to your robot and your opponent. When one icon shows complete damage, the robot explodes. Otherwise, there's a time limit for each battle and a scoring system based on the quality of the bout.

If you beat your opponent, you are returned to the inventory screen to spend your winnings and repair the damage. You can then fight another, more dangerous opponent. IF you find the ST-controlled opponents too hard anyway, there's always the two player option.

Metal Masters has beautifully animated graphics: the robots are dark and menacing, with fine detail. Each weapon has distinctive animation, from the hammering blows of the Cutter to the slashing of the Claw. The robots produce some nice hydraulic/metallic sound effects as they duel, and there are good chunky noises throughout the melee.

All the hi-tech battling in Metal Masters is tremendously refreshing to play and really addictive. It's all carried along by the superlative animation and gritty sound effects that get you instantly involved. With two players there's even more fun to be had, smashing each other up. Metal Masters is a brilliant beat-'em-up that's worth selling your grandma for.