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The second of Go!'s Capcom releases, Street Fighter, is simply the latest in a long line of beat-'em-ups. With this conversion, though, you don't get one version, you get two.

Go! commissioned two separate versions, one from the UK, one from the US. When both came through on time, they were left wondering which one to use. So we said 'send us the two disks and we'll tell you which one's best'. It was no contest really and I'm sorry to bring news of another blow to national pride - the US version is far superior. That's why it's on the A-side of this release.

The coin-op original appeared in the arcades last autumn and immediately gained a certain cult status, mainly because of its large sprites and the punch pads that replaced the usual buttons on the deluxe version. These pneumatic pressure pads transformed a standard oriental karate game into a physical workout.

The idea behind the game is simple. You take control of either of two young masters of the martial arts, Ryu and Ken (!) who are confident enough of their prowess at Far Eastern fisticuffs, to travel around the world (showing no evidence of financial support or sponsorship) slugging it out with some of the best thugs around. There's ten street fighters, two from each of Japan, America, England, China and, finally, Thailand.

Both versions take a similar approach to the problem of transferring the mammoth coin-op gameplay to the restrictions of 8-bit. They concentrated on turning in an effective beat-'em-up. However only one really succeeds. The US version is superior in graphics, sound, control and speed. Just about every department really. It has nice backdrops with lots of colour, where as the UK version is composed of muddy browns for the most part. The fighters also control adequately with a good range of moves and blows, whereas the Brit attempt only seems to work with two blows.

Where the UK one differs is in trying to provide you with the large figures of the original. However, the characters are so badly drawn that they simply degenerate into a mass of mucky pixels as soon as they move. It does at least provide the bonus round though, where you can batter a pile of slates or pieces for extra points.

Nevertheless there's no real competition here. The US version, from Pacific Developments is superior in every way to Tiertex's UK one and quite good fun to play. It also has three difficulty levels, though I'd hate to play it on expert. All the characters are well drawn and I particularly like the Japanese Ninja Geki who simply dissolves before your eyes only to reappear like a cyclone behind you, throwing shuriken.

The overall problem with both games is that without the appeal of huge sprites and great pressure pads to thump. Street Fighter loses its appeal a bit. What you end up with is more of a Yie-Ar Kung Fu experience, which is OK, but nothing new. Still with two for the price of one you can't complain too loudly.