The trend for computer Kung Fu kick-'em-ups has gone the same way as the trend for martial arts films that inspired them; they're dated and samey and most people avoid them like flares or Radio One. But there are still enough hardcore fans out there to make the genre (both film and computer) profitable - according to Bruce Lee's son no martial arts film has ever lost money. This could have something to do with the fact that they're so cheap to make. With software, this isn't the case, but Ocean must be hoping that there are enough martial arts fans bereft of the fairly humdrum high-kickin' fodder available on The Ninja Collection to make this compilation a worthwhile venture.

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Bad Dudes Vs. Dragonninja is the best-looking of the lot, but that's about it. Your mission is to rescue the President of the United States (who's called Ronnie, which dates the game a bit). He's been kidnapped by some nasty oriental types. But don't worry too much about plot details. Your main aims here, as with the other games, are to (a) kick the crap out of everyone else you come across on-screen and (b) discover how the joystick controls work before cramp sets in.

The graphics are serviceable. The sprites at least seem to vaguely resemble human proportions (as long as they're Arnold Schwarzenegger's) and move well. The controls are a bit muddy though, and trying to leap across gaps is a hit or miss affair. The main problem is that it's all so samey. The backgrounds change, sure, but the gameplay and adversaries remains on a pretty mundane level throughout. And there's an annoying wait for each (pretty dull) end-of-level guardian to be loaded up with completely destroys the flow of the action.

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Double Dragon is the least irritating of the bunch as it's the most responsive, and the controls seem the most natural. It's fairly easy to work out how to achieve such impressive-sounding manoeuvres as Hair Grab kicks, as opposed to using them by sheer fluke as with the other games.

This time it's your girlfriend that has been kidnapped but, again, the plot devices are purely incidental. The levels progress nicely, with something different to engage your interest and challenge your skills in each, and the adversaries are a colourful bunch.

But Double Dragon does have some pretty major drawbacks. For one, it's just too easy: you get more lives than the entire case of Top Cat and the villains are generally so stupid you can just keep your joystick jammed in one kicking position and wait for them to die. And the graphics look like the winning entry in the under fives section of a Blue Peter design-a-sprite competition. Blocky, garish backgrounds and dumpy characters with no noses all look a bit primitive these days. And there are loads of irritating little graphical glitches - such as bodies that only half vanish - which add to a feeling of general shoddiness.

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There is the chance that Shadow Warriors might be attempting a new slant on this tired genre by setting the whole game underwater, but I doubt it. I suspect instead the mind-numbingly slow movement and over-the-top animation is more the result of unimaginative programming. The game looks great in the pics - well-drawn sprites, detailed backgrounds - but once in motion it's, well, in slow motion.

Your Shadow Warrior is the worst of the lot; when he runs, he looks like a spider on rollerskates in a jar of treacle; when he does back and forward somersaults, you might as well go and make a cup of tea while you wait for him to come down. A resulting disadvantage of this is that your warrior is almost impossible to control - luckily the joystick system is a lot simpler than for the other two games, so you still have some hope.

There are some nice touches - you can leap up and grab hold of bars and other handy horizontal objects to swing from and kick your adversaries - but you're unlikely to appreciate the as the rest of the game is so infuriating.

If you like the genre, you're bound to have played more challenging stuff than this (At least, we hope so). And if you're new, this could put you off for life...