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Until now, boxing sims have been pretty much a ringside affair. You look on from outside the ropes while the two guys slug it out in the middle. TKO adds a touch of realism by sticking you right in the middle of the action.

There are four unranked boxers in the gym from which you can choose your contender. The select player screen shows your opponent's mug shot and fighting style at the bottom of the screen. You can scroll through the four available boxers to select whoever stands the best chance. You can also fine tune the attributes to give your man the attributes to give your man that extra edge. This is done by means of a sort of mixing desk with five sliders to determine stance, power hand, best punch, strength and weakness.

Maximising certain aspects tends to have a negative effect on others. For example, if you do push the strength slider to maximum, your man may pack a hell of a punch, but all that muscle will slow him down and he won't always connect. The weakness setting lets you determine your boxer's staying power. Ability to go the distance carries with it a tendency to get badly cut up.

Using the joystick you can set your guard to one of five positions. Your guard position determines the kind of punch you throw when you press the Fire button - a jab, a hook or an uppercut. The punch can be aimed by pulling the joystick just before you hit fire. So you can hit your opponent on either side of the body, either jaw or eye, in the nose, mouth or solar plexus. Everywhere in fact apart from below the belt.

The scoreboard appears at the end of each round and gives a complete statistical breakdown of your performance. This shows the total number of punches thrown, the number of head and body punches landed, the number of head and body hits your man took, the number of punches you blocked, the total damage you inflicted on your opponent and the score. Pretty comprehensive, huh? The scoring uses something called the ten-point Must system in which the winner gets ten points and loser nine, unless he gets knocked down in which case it's eight.

At the end of a bout everybody's statistics are updated and saved to disc. There is also a two player game option so you can have a good scrap with a mate without any of the computer opponents being involved.

TKO is without doubt the most realistic boxing game ever. It's so much more satisfying being right at the centre of the action, throwing the punches and watching them land. The game lacks the big fight atmosphere though; not enough use has been made of sound effects (There's not even a decent bell at the end of a round) and there's no crowd.