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US Gold have now decided to release two long overdue conversions of two popular coin-op beat-'em-up games Karate Camp and Tag Team Wrestling.

The main event on the tape is Tag Team which is roughly a year old in the arcades. The decision on US Gold's part to release a Wrestling sim is something of a strange one, as we already have an almost flawless one on the market in the form of Epyx's Championship Wrestling.

The objective of the game is to obtain the undisputed title of 'Superchampion'. To do this, you and your partner must win forty of so consecutive bouts. The team you belong to are 'Ricky's Fighters'. The two members are Ricky and Ultramachine, who despite how ruthless they may seem when dealing with scum in the ring, they still spend their free-time helping old ladies, like the Ed, across the road. Their opponents in complete contrast are 'Strong & Bad', which also happens to be their name. The S&B team consists of Worly and Mascross, whose part-time hobbies include mugging babies [Nice guys - Ed].

There are eight different ways of making your opponent squirm in pain:

1. Boby bash
   Sprint towards your opponent and flop your full weight on to him. Big Daddy splosh style.
2. Drop kick
   Bounce him off the ropes and have your feet waiting to greet his ugly mug.
3. Body slam
   Pick your opponents up and put Newton's theory of gravity to the test.
4. Back drop
   Pick up Worly or Mascross, fall backwards and use them to break your fall.
5. Back breaker
   Do I really have to spell this one out?
6. Neck hanging
   Twist his neck into a very painful position and wait until he submits, or his partner comes to rescue.
7. Body slam
   Up, up and awaayee!
8. Secret move
   This is only accessible when the opponent is flashing, each opponent has a different secret move (as I discovered painfully!)

The moves are accessible by grabbing the opponent via the Fire button, and then moving the joystick in the required direction. To win a bout you must either pin your opponent down for a count of three, when his energy is low, or simply wait for him to release an agonising cry of "Give up!" by simply reducing his energy to zero.

The second game, Karate Champ, is a major landmark in computer software, for this is the godfather of all beat-'em-ups. This game was the inspiration for classics such as Fist and stinkers such as Ninja Master. It is in every way similar to Fist and Co by now a mediocre one-on-one beat-'em-up. Not exactly brilliant but it might give a die-hard a couple of hours of entertainment.

Despite the fact that Tag Team has a two-player game and a free beat-'em-up, it still doesn't come within spitting distance of the Epyx wrestling sim. Neither the graphics, sound or gameplay come close but maybe those of you who have now worn out Championship Wrestling may feel inclined to give this a shot.