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What's lean, mean and has just had seven shades of green kicked out of it by someone called Bart? Dunno? That's probably because you've forgotten the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, comic book idols of yesteryear. Except Imageworks are about to remind you, courtesy of their Konami coin-op conversion...

A few months back, if I'd walked into the street with a Turtles mug balanced precariously on my head, a horde of maybe 3,000 youngsters would have beaten the hell out of me just so that they could possess this tacky piece of merchandise. And funnily enough, shopkeepers around the country were faced with similar treatment when Mirrorsoft released a (somewhat average) game based on the movie.

Stranger still, if I wore the same mug into the street today, I would either be laughed at or avoided. This is a bit sad 'cos now Mirrorsoft have released another Turties game, based this time on the coin-op, and it can only be described as way above average.

If you don't already know the plot of the coin-op, consider yourself a fully paid up member of a very large club. There is no plot as such. The whole thing is just a series of ten self-contained missions. To outline them all would be a waste of space. Needless to say, such tasks as rescuing April and Splinter from a variety of horrible situations lie ahead of you.

Each horizontally scrolling level is several screens long. As in Golden Axe, you need to kill off all the opponents in any one screen before a little "Hurry Up" message tells you to move swiftly on to the next challenge. At the end of a level, a single separate screen appears in which one of Krang's major cohorts is waiting to de-shell you. These super baddies are both larger and tougher than the normal ones and, more often than not, they carry weapons. Things start off fairly easy, only Rock Steady can stand up to a pasting. But as each level falls by the wayside, the end of level opponents get harder to beat. They even gang up on you.

Still, while the enemy's brute force and ignorance tactics are fine against ordinary folk, the turtles have a lifetime of ninja training (and a high protien pizza diet) in their favour. There are no defensive moves to complicate things, just keep attacking. The action really is non-stop and frantic beyond belief. You can access a number of random attacks simply by pressing fire. They all have the same effect, but it's nice to see so much effort going into the sprite animation. Apart from these regular left and right attacks, you can perform stunning roundhouse attacks, jumps, flying kicks and somersaults.

So who's going to feel the powerful end of these attacks? Well, all the usual crowd is there: Rock Steady, Be-Bop, Shredder, Krang. But they all hang around at the end of the levels. Most of the in-level adversaries are standard looking ninja with non-standard methods of attack. The weediest of them just enter into hand-to-hand combat.

As you get further into the game though, they start to play dirty. There are knife throwers, spearmen, ninja gun toters, some of them even get you in an arm lock. When this happens, you need to waggle your joystick and press your fire button to escape a pasting. Later still, strange robot nannies (well, that's what they look like!) and mechanised dogs try to get in on the fun. They're pretty tough but when you actually get a hit on them your ears are treated to a superb metallic clanging sound.

Not only that, but just when you think you've had hazards up to your turtle necks, you find it's also possible to get floored by a giant rolling ball or plummet down an open manhole.

I'd say this game was busy but that's not a strong enough word. The action doesn't let up. The only time you get to rest your weary little digits is while the next level loads. But all this action and speed haven't been achieved at the expense of good graphics. The backdrops are excellent (except, oddly, for the cars in the street scenes). Most impressive are the sprites. Without exception, they are marvellously animated, beautifully drawn and totally flicker-free. Sound too, is a bonus. The title track is good and the sound effects better.

By all means tell me you hate the Turtles, that's up to you. Insist, if you must that they are has-beens, I might even agree. But tell me that this isn't one of the slickest beat-'em-ups you've ever played and I would have to protest.

1. All the levels follow the same left to right formula. Not much variety.
2. Two players at once? No chance!

1. Presentation screens at the start are works of art.
2. Title track had the CF crew gyrating for hours.
3. Sound effects are spot on, especially metallic clanging.
4. Ten levels won't be cracked in a hurry.
5. Loads of enemies. And they all attack differently.
6. Four turtles to choose from.
7. Boulders and manholes to make life difficult.
8. Hot sprite animation.
9. Heaps of combat moves.
10. Action is frantic and non-stop for the whole game.