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Within 8 pico-seconds of release, Street Fighter 2 hit number one! Can it back up the hype with good gaming? The only way to find out was to take it on in a gameplay scrap. So we fed Trenton, CF's office thug, some red meat, bunged him a joystick and phoned for an ambulance.

Would you swap two of your boring old beat-'em-ups for one new exciting Street Fighter 2? No way! Few people dared to dream that the C64 conversion of 'the ultimate combat game' could capture the feel of Capcom's arcade classic, that it would offer the same depth of gameplay, that it could possibly deliver as much face-punching, groin-kicking fun as the coin-op. But it does... well, almost.

SF 2 is no pixel-perfect clone, let's get that straight. The sprites aren't big enough and with only one fire button ~ the original machine had six - some of the fighting moves just had to go. But that's all you're missing. The rest - and don't ask me how - has been squeezed, shrunk, shoe-horned and otherwise crammed onto the C64.

SF2 is a battle between twelve warriors - not all at the same time, though, but in a series of one-to-one bouts - who all think they're pretty hard and fancy finding out who's the most insanely hostile person on the planet. As a player you can choose from any one of eight characters while the computer controls four 'villains'. The result is a globe-trotting eleven-match big brawl.

You take 'yer man' (or woman if you choose Chun Li) around the world and fight each of the other pretenders to the Street Fighter throne on their home turf. It's gloves-off stuff for three rounds in which you have to pummel, pound and generally pulverise them into unconsciousness. Each round is a brutal battle. Both fighters have an energy bar, which decreases as they get hit, and the first person to zero falls over.

There's also a timer which ticks steadily towards zero, and if it gets there before a knockout then the healthiest warrior wins. That's the mechanics, now let's talk about the fighting. [About time too! - CF!]

SF2's edge comes from the fact that you can do more than kick, punch and butt folk. Each fighter has different skills, which are derived from their character. There are quick, lightweight battlers and slow-but-strong big boys. Each has a wide range of attacks which are initiated by specific joystick commands. You have to sit, wait and then set the move in action at the right moment to make the best use of each fighter's special skills.

Many moves take a second or two to complete, so you have to be aware of what you're starting and where you'll end up. (Particularly pokey blows can leave you breathless when you've thrown them, so you don't want to leave yourself vulnerable). This is not so much a thinking man's beat-'em-up, as a fighting man's think-'em-up.

The stars of this fisticuffs show, though, are the specials. [You mean the early 80s ska band - Ollie?] Uh, no. Each fighter has two or three special moves, effectively a super power: Chun Li spins her legs like a helicopter; the Indian rubber man breathes yogi fire; and the Sumo wrestler leaps across the screen like an unstoppable blubbernaut. To start such an attack, you need to move the joystick through the correct combination of moves, which means forethought and planning - a factor so unusual in beat-'em-ups that, now it's finally featured, you feel cheated by the slug-fests you've played before.

Curiously there's an incidental bonus with C64 SF2 - the manual's wrong. Nope, I haven't gone barmy - this isn't as stupid as it sounds. Y'see, for most of the special moves the manual tells you the wrong way of getting them started. Normally this would bad news, but here it encourages you to sit down and play through all of the characters, testing combinations and watching the results. This means that you get a real feel for the guys you control and really got to know how to milk their talents.

Becoming familiar with each character's skills and strengths is the key to SF2. You need to have had practice to make the most of your chances and you need to wait until your opponent is in a position in which he can't defend himself before you strike. The majority of play isn't the bashing but the waiting to bash, in gunfight style.

Beat-'em-ups are also notoriously low on options. Not Street Fighter 2. Here, you can choose between one-player tournaments and two-player head-to-head matches. You can set the difficulty level of each bout, and the strength of human players can be altered (effectively a handicap system to even up the duff characters with the dead good ones).

On reflection, the two-player slug-out is the one feature that absolutely had to be included because the one-player game, while exciting and tense, is far too easy, even on the top difficulty setting. I finished it first time out on setting three, without losing a single round. Two-player battles though, give you the chance to clout the seven bells out of a friend. An added bonus is that they can serve as a practice arena 'cos your opponent won't fight back.

Going head-to-head causes a strange reaction. You'll notice that you're paying as much attention to the other guy's joystick movements as you are to the screen, because if you know which move they're about to launch then you stand a chance of avoiding it!

There are problems with SF2. It's not graphically stunning, the machine chugs on occasions, the manual's pretty hopeless and the one-player mode is too easy. But played against a mate this series of knock-about comic book bouts is excellent entertainment. I'd say it's less like a beat-'em-up and more like chess - although it would be chess with brass knuckles, baseball bats and semi-automatic weapons!

1. A gob-smacking range of fighting moves.
2. Inconceivable! A beat-'em-up with depth.
3. Stupidly amusing violence - in the best possible taste.
4. Captures the spirit of the Capcom original.

1. Some scrappy sprites.
2. The one-player mode is too easy.