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Arnie explodes back onto our screens yet again, this time in the guise of one Mr. Ben Richards, selected, against his will, to participate in a futuristic gameshow, where the only way you win is by staying alive.

The Running Man, the game, has you in control of our beloved Arnie in his escape bid along five right-to-left scrolling levels.

The intro sequence is probably the most impressive part of the game, and it deserves all the praise it gets. It is nothing short of amazing. It's composed almost entirely from animated digitised scenes from the movie. The producer counts down the start of the show, while random faces flash up on screen. Then come up four short scenes from the movie, closing with the compere, Mr. Bald, spinning round, arms wide shouting "It's showtime!". Then if that isn't enough, you then get to see Arnie catapulted down a tunnel in that bullet-shaped box, just after muttering "I'll be back". This all takes up one of the two discs you get in the packaging.

The game has you, as Ben who has to run, walk, jump, crawl, punch and kick his way to freedom. He has to run to get from one end of the screen to the other; he has to walk when he's fed up with running; he has to jump to get over obstacles that line the levels, like walls and fallen lighting equipment and such, and he has to crawl to go under other obstacles, like pipes or to pick up makeshift weapons, like bricks or sticks.

The punching and kicking comes in when Ben encounters something unpleasant. There are two types of 'something' in the game. The first are the Alsations that are trained to go for you. Should they succeed in lunging for you, you lose energy. To get it back, you have to kick the dogs [Do the RSPCA know about this? - Ed]. The other kind of opponent you meet on each level are the stalkers. There's one on each level, and boy, do they get tough.

The first savages you with explosive hockey pucks, the second packs a chainsaw, the third is a mean dude by the name of Electro, who fires energy bolts at you. Lord knows what or who comes next.

Should you manage to destroy The Stalker, you are allowed access to the next level, provided you manage to get the 'uplink' code. The uplink code is collected by completing a small puzzle sub game. Two circles of eight icons are displayed, and one of them is systematically jumbled up. You have to, by swapping pairs in one of the circles, make them match, and all within a minute. Sometimes you'll find it really easy, other times, you just won't be able to do it in time. It's all down to luck.

The graphics are pretty fab. The sprites are large and well defined, and the animation is pretty good too. The scrolling contains quite a few levels of parallax, most of which aren't immediately visible. As you go through the game, odd items like lighting rigs will appear in a previously unused line of parallax and scroll past, giving a new feeling of depth to the game.

The sound is quite nice, consisting of a jolly tune and a few in-game effects, such as the dogs growling, or yelping in pain when you kick them. I was a bit disappointed about the fact that you don't get any extra effects when you turn the tune off, which then more or less leaves you in silence.

The Running Man is fun for a while. But behind all the glitz is still a run of the mill beat-'em-up.