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Consoles, pah! What have they ever given us, eh? Except wildly exaggerated prices, interminable advertising and more hyperbole than you could throw a stick at. Still, something good had to come out of them eventually, and you don't even have to pay £65 for the privilege. To our not-so-slight amazement, Street Fighter 2 has managed to live up to the hype associated with it and it's great to finally see a decent beat-'em-up on the ST after those awful, apologetic excuses for games dragged in the wake of WWF WrestleMania.

Still, enough about the hype, what about the plot? As usual, not a lot of effort has been expended by the game designers in coming up with a convincing plot for all this naked aggression, but, then, who cares about that?

All you need to know is that eight of the world's greatest fighters - Ryu, Edmond Honda, Blanka, Guile, Ken, Chun Li, Zangieff and Dhalsim - have gathered together in a contest of skill and strength to earn the title of World Warrior and you get the opportunity to play all of them. Each of the contestants has distinct strengths, skills and weaknesses and you soon discover which combinations of moves work best at defeating different opponents - for example, Dhalsim can easily defeat Blanka, but finds Guile a much harder proposition. The relative strenghts and weaknesses of the characters means that they're all pretty evenly matched, although once you've discovered your opponent's Achille's heel, they're relatively easy to defeat. The attributes of each character are also enhanced by the inclusion of the special moves - the ability to cast fireballs, lightning kicks and so on - which makes gameplay far more interesting and it takes a considerable amount of practice to master each contestant's speciality.

To ensure you don't finish the game in the first afternoon, Street Fighter 2 also has eight difficulty levels and the odd rogue opponent - M Bison, for example, thrown in. There are also a couple of bonus screens - one where you get involved in a bit of gratuitous car bashing and another where you have to deflect a horde of rapidly descending barrels. But, best of all is the two-player option where you can take on your mates and show them up to be the weeds they are.

Gameplay is controlled by a combination of joystick, keyboard or both. There are a variety of eight different positions your character can assume from defensive crouches to flying lunges as well as a wide variety and combinations of kick and punch. Control of the special moves is different for each character and involves a combination of joystick movements - for Ryu to do a Dragon Punch you have to move the joystick back, then back and right, then just to the right in one motion while pressing the Fire button.

The sprites are large, sharply defined and very well animated, while the background graphics are superb. Even the chip music is catchy and there are some great sound effects and samples. However, there are a couple of glitches - Thailand's flag appears both in Australia and in the middle of the ocean on the world map and some of the on-screen text tends to get lost in the background.

There are eight different characters for you to choose from in Street Fighter 2. Here's a quick rundown of who they are and what they can do.

1. Blanka You've got the decimation of the rainforests to thank for this one. Blanka is a mean looking brute with red hair and bad breath. His special moves include Electricity - where he can shoot 1,000 volts through an opponent - and the Rolling Attack, the Brazilian equivalent of a cruise missile.
2. Chun Li She's a bit of a sex goddess, our Chun Li, and the token female of the bunch. Extremely agile, Chun Li spends most of her time performing somersaults through the air and unleashing Whirlwind and Lightning Kicks upon her opponents. She's taking part in the championship to avenge the death of her father.
3. Dhalism Yoga and the search for unity of the soul are Dhalism's twin obsessions. However, he doesn't let this stop him from donating the business end of his boot to weedy halfwit's sore head fund. Dhalism uses his spiritual influences to deliver some wicked moves in the shape of the Yoga Fire and the Yoga Flame.
4. Guile Ex-member of the US special forces, Guile is consumed with hatred for all humanity since his pal Charlie kicked the bucket. He gets his revenge by putting the boot into everyone else and his Flash Kick is a force to be reckoned with. He can also create energy bolts called Sonic Booms to flatten his adversaries.
5. Honda Inventor of the low-cost motorcycle and world champion Sumo wrestler, Edmond Honda likes to give his opponents the Hundred Hand Slap and the Sumo Head Butt.
   
   For the record, Edmond Honda is no relation to Noel Edmonds despite a similar taste in pullovers.
6. Ken Poor old Ken got dumped by Barbie and couldn't take the rejection - he signed himself up with Master Sheng Long and quickly developed a great talent for being a loud, arrogant and generally unpleasant git, though with that perm it's a bit on the difficult side to see why. Like Ryu he's partial to Dragon Punches and Hurricane Kicks.
7. Ryu A pupil of Master Shen Long, Ryu has lost all his friends and family, so he spends his days leaping into the air shouting "Tatsu-maki-sen-pu-kyaku." No-one knows what it means, but it scares the hell out of his opponents, especially when he delivers a Hurricane Kick at the same time. He also likes Dragon Punch, apparently.
8. Zangieff Mr T lookalike Zangieff is built like a brick privvy and smells like one. This could be because of the large amounts of boiled cabbage in his diet, as a result of all those Russian food shortages. Zangieff's favourite fighting moves are the Spinning Clothesline - also known as the Tumble Dryer - and the Spinning Pile Driver.

Street Fighter 2 is one heck of a game. It craps on Ocean's WWF licence from a great height. If this is to set the standards for beat-'em-ups of the future, then Hulk Hogan and his cronies couldn't even get a look in. The huge, well-animated sprites and excellent gameplay make this a game to be reckoned with. Go and discover what all the fuss was about.

One of the best beat-'em-ups ever. This time you can believe the hype.

Your arms are likely to drop off with the sheer frenzy of it all. Invest in a very stout joystick.