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Robocop is set in the future, and the city of Detroit is caught in the grip of a crime wave the likes of which have never been seen before. The police force is now run privately by OmniConsumer Products, a giant multinational corporation. One officer, Alex Murphy, critically injured in the line of duty, is encased in a suit of titanium body armour, and let back on the streets as the ultimate in law enforcement - Robocop.

Controlling the laminated lawman, your task is to clean up Old Detroit by wiping out hordes of mindless thugs, and eliminate both Clarence Boddicker (drug dealer and the leader of the gang of crooks responsible for Murphy's condition), and Dick Jones, the corrupt Senior President of OmniConsumer Products (the corporation who rebuilt Murphy's shattered remains).

Every so often, you need to get your targeting system recalibrated, so it's off to the firing range, to test your skills on some poor, defenceless cardboard cutouts. Once this is done, it's back on the beat, and time for more thug-mashing! It's you against them, so get to it - Old Detroit's depending on you!

Robocop, both in celluloid and video form, has been a huge success ever since its initial release in the States back in the summer of 1987. Essentially a cop film with metal bits, the black humour and over-the-top violence combined with a strong script made it one of the most popular films of recent years.

Of course, once the merchandising boffins recognised the movie's true value, a whole skipload of spin-offs emerged, including toys, models, books, a cartoon series (a video of which - Detroit Crimewave - is now available), and of course, a computer game which went to the top of the charts and stayed at the number one spot for over six months, and is still in the charts today, some two years after its release!

During the game, Robocop attends a shooting gallery to recalibrate his sights. The shooting action is displayed in 3D, and the player controls a set of crosshairs with which Robocop's gun is aimed at the pop-up targets.

There's a set number of targets to hit - and if you're a very good player, you should be able to get every one!

Robocop is one of my favourite films, so I can only express big disappointment at this half-hearted Nintendo game. Not only ar the graphics very flickery and dull - Robocop's animation is truly awful and the backgrounds are very drag, indeed - but the sound is also dire, the controls are sluggish and the gameplay is very repetitive.

There's lots of trudging around shooting at badly drawn baddies, and very little else. Had there been more variety, Robocop might have been fun, but as it stands it quickly get boring. Considering the all-action movie, I'm sure that a lot more could have been made of this.

Oh dear, oh dear, what a disappointment. With the success of the movie and the original game, you'd think a console version could be just as good, if not better.

But wrong! The graphics are dull and drab, and the sprites jerk and flicker about the screen like ghostly puppets. Robocop himself slides about like a metallic Michael Jackson, and would more than likely make any crook laugh to death rather than quiver in his boots.

The main title theme is enough to have you reaching for the volume in seconds, and the minimal pops and phuts do nothing to enhance the amosphere any. Leave this one on the shelf.

Presentation 77%
Nice intermission screens, but that's about it.

Graphics 54%
Poor backdrops and naff sprites don't make this a pretty game to look at.

Sound 45%
A poor rendition of the main theme, along with sub-standard spot effect.

Playability 53%
Apart from being very dull to play, the difficulty level is set way too high, making this very frustrating indeed...

Lastability 36%
...and the repetitive nature soon puts you off the action. Sad, considering the great potential this had.

Overall 50%
A dull and frustrating game that does the original film no justice whatsoever.