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Joe Mushashi, Martial Artist, is about to take on the fight of his life. His best chum, Kato, has been viciously murdered by a gang of street fighters - understandably - as he inadvertently discovered the gang's secret plans to take over the world!

Now, as Joe, with your trusty mutt in tow, you set out to avenge your friend, defuse a number of bombs, save the space shuttle (no, I don't know where that bit fits in either!), kill all of the bad guys and get out alive. By the way, the dog's no passenger, as he's quite a dab hand (or paw) at the old martial arts himself.

And in case you think that's all too easy, here's the killer - you've only got three minutes to complete each stage. Have fun...

If first impressions were anything to go by, then Shadow Dancer would score very highly indeed - especially as the large sprites are initially reminiscent of the Sega coin-op. Unfortunately, first impressions don't rate very highly and the early promise soon fades a little.

There are good points: the use of the dog adds a novel strategic twist to the proceedings and the background graphics are noteworthy (especially on the later levels, with the appearance of waterfalls and suchlike), but unfortunately the sprites tend to disappear into them, thus making the action a touch confusing.

Most importantly of all for a beat-'em-up, the control method is very straightforward, enabling you to get straight into the action. But there's one problem that will quicikly irritate almost anyone who tries their hand... just say you're up against the last bad guy, you see the exit sign, you've slogged your guts out to get this far, you're excited, all your mates have been with you all the way - then, you get stabbed... and it's all the way back to the beginning of the level.

This could be worse, as each level is split into four stages and you're only banished to the beginning of the current one, but it's annoying nonetheless. It's deep, colourful and an adequate conversion, but the fault just mentioned above may deter some.