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There's been a great deal of talk lately concerning the rights and wrongs of boxing, and why not? After all, getting into a ring with some big bloke who's paid to hit you is never going to be a walk in the park. Still, if the smell of sweat or your own blood isn't to your fancy, there's always a trusty old C64 to turn to. So, let's see what the actions like in the silicon ring. Even if the worst comes to the worst and you get smashed to a pulp, at least with Final Blow you can do it from the comfort of your own armchair.

Of all the beat-'em-ups we've seen (and we've seen an awful lot) Final Blow has the most impressive main characters. The boxers are big - over half the height of the screen - and really ripple with muscle. There are ten fighters to choose from and they all look pretty damn good. However, they're all heavyweights and all look pretty much the same (it would have been nice to see some lighter or more different boxers). The most critical thing in a boxing game is that the action must be convincing and fortunately, the animated punching and parrying is excellent.

Unfortunately, with such large characters there are always a few drawbacks and in this case, is the leg movement. The lower half of the body hardly moves at all and although you can slide backwards and forwards gracefully, it's hardly moving like a butterfly. You're not allowed to dance around the ring at all in fact: it's as if the boxers are mounted on a single set of rails. This is a pity because it really does restrict the gameplay to the forward-punch-back school of fighting, making the gameplay a bit one-dimensional. And, thanks to the Marquis of Queensbury, boxing has rules. Now this is fine and lovely in the real world, in our virtual computer world it's a real handicap. There are no low blows, kicks or weapons allowed - you can't even do any clever martial arts stuff like a Flying-Nike-To-The-Head. The worst, most terrible and unforgivable thing of all is what happens to the loser. When your knock your opponent out with a devastating right hook, breaking his nose in three places and knocking out four of his teeth, what do you think happens? Does he crash to the floor with a bone-crunching thud? No. He just droops forward and stays standing up. Is that pathetic or what? If I beat someone unconscious in the name of sport I want to see them sprawled out on a blood-splattered canvas, not looking like they're checking to see if their shoelaces are undone!

Anyway with ten boxers to face as you claw your way to the top, it should be a tough battle. But, that's probably the most disappointing part of all. The computer boxers are all pretty weedy - most of them are more like Ali Bongo than Muhammad Ali. It only took us two goes at the league before we beat all the boxers - most of them within two minutes.

They all have their own styles and levels of intelligence, it's just that these levels aren't very high, know what I mean 'Arry... Having said that, theres much more lastability in it if you fight in two-player mode. After all, playing against a friend is excellent fun 'cause there's nothing quite like beating your best mate at boxing, especially when it means you don't have to hurt yourself in the process.

Final Blow is an excellent conversion, probably as good a job as anyone anywhere could have done on the C64, Unfortunately, ultimately it fails to lift the Lonsdale Belt of computer gaming. This is not because the graphics aren't excellent, or the sound effects aren't bone-crunching enough, or even because the coding isn't slick enough but just because it's not a very good subject for conversion onto the C64. Sometimes you have to accept a game that's worth a handful of 10 pees in an arcade, just doesn't have the lastability needed for 12's worth of home computer game. If you're an avid fight fan, then you'll probably get a blast out of Final Blow. With a big bowl of popcorn and a friend to play against, it's probably as much fun as a real thing.

But if, like me, you find the idea of two grown men beating each other senseless in the name of sport, a stupid and faintly nauseating ritual, then the limited gameplay and relative weediness of the computer boxers will make Final Blow a loser on points at the final bell.

Still, pugilists everywhere can be guaranteed a whacking good time, if not the most sophisticated beat-'em-up ever seen.

1. It's just too easy to win!
2. It all becomes a bit boring too soon and lasting interest is limited.
3. One type of punch is enough to see off most opponents.
4. The fact that boxers that don't fall down when knocked-out hardly adds to the realism.

1. The boxers are big, fast and smooth-moving sprites with a lot of character.
2. The computer opponents all have different styles of boxing.
3. Atmospheric fight noises and crunching noises.
4. Great as a two-player game.
5. User-definable settings such as round length, number of rounds, etc.
6. Plenty of opponents.