If you can't box clever, fight dirty!

Producer: Superior Software
Fighter's PPurse: £7.95 cass, £12.95 disk
Author: C Goodwin from an original version by M and T Simpson

He was fighting dirty, know what I mean 'Arry? Well even professional boxers have been known to resort to the odd low punch and in this game the carefully-timed foul is just as important as a good right hook.

In two-player mode two 'friends' can fight each other, while the one-player game involves taking on progressively tougher opponents in a bid for the World Championship. Some of them, with names like Dirty Larry and Fast Freddy, aren't bad at fighting dirty either.

Bouts can last for a maximum 15 rounds, but more often than not one of the fighters fails to go the distance, losing all his five lives first. Lives are lost for losing a round and being spotted committing a foul move. The referee moves around the ring at random, watching out for fouls, but sometimes he nods off! Icons at the top of the screen turn red or green, according to which, if any, boxer he's keeping an eye on.

Selecting a dirty move is, like fair moves, by the usual combination of joystick directions and fire. Showing the impact of these moves are two energy bars and whichever fighter has most energy left at the end of the round wins it. If a boxer's energy is reduced to zero, he falls over and is counted out. Unlike real boxing, however, he still gets up to fight the next round if he's any lives left!

Although By Fair Means Or Foul appeals to my devious nature, technically it's mediocre with wobbly sprites and basic sound. The action ultimately gets repetitive, as success can be achieved by the repeated use of one or two moves. Still, it's good, if hardly clean fun for a few bouts.

PHIL [45%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: sloppy boxer sprites 'skate' around the ring
Sound: simple punching noises and crunchy applause at the end of each round
Options: one or two players. Restart game against more difficult opponent

Foul! How can you call this a fair match when I can't even tell which is my boxer? In any case, the pair of 'em look doped, moving around the ring like they're ice-skating. As for the ref, how much was he paid? - he never notices the other guy's fouls while mine are spotted every time! What a con!
MARK [23%]

Superior [2]
£7.95 cass/£12.95 disk
Reviewer: David McCandless

Don't you just love boxing? The crowds, the atmosphere, the smoke, the clash of the bell, the grunts, the sweat, the swift nasal exhalations, the count, the money, the divorce settlement, the suicide attempt, the brain damage. Oh yes, it's a great sport, but does it really work on the computer?

No.

There simply aren't enough moves. In boxing you've got your standard punch, your er, punch, and of course the punch. Not very impressive at all.

So when Superior came to attempt a boxing game they were very cunning about it, deciding to include the foulest, most disgusting, loathful and unlawful of boxing moves: the head butt (ooh), the kick (aah), the knee (no!) and the groin punch (swoon). All these among the customary defensive blocks and normal punches and jabs make sixteen moves on one joystick. The idea is to ascend the world rankings to World Champion by pulping the six increasingly deadly muscular monoliths standing in your way.

You have fifteen rounds in which to pulverise your opponent. Each round lasts 60 seconds. For a KO you have to pummel about twenty-five consecutive punches into Mild Martin's gob. Which isn't easy when he's busy doing the same for you. Alternatively, you can opt to be nefarious and seek an opportune moment to strike with a despicable move - like when the referee falls asleep for instance.

Unfortunately, the graphics are primitive and old fashioned. You and the opponent look like twins with the same pointed angular bodies, toeless shoes and pencil necks - only the shorts differ. The referee is a prat in black who marches back and forth like a bow-legged crab.

Everything moves reasonably smoothly, but effective punches must be delivered from the correct distance more or less - and they miss. This gets annoying when, in the heat of the battle, you attempt to fend off Mild Martin with a cannonball of a punch only to find you're standing a pixel too far back!

The moves are awkward to obtain and often slow to respond. And the restrictions to left/right movement make the characters seem more like shuffling cardboard cut-outs.

The game's tidily presented with a subtle splattering of special effects and humour, but the poor graphics, unwieldy control, and painful speed just prove my point.

Boxing games don't work particularly well on the computer.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Fixing a leaky tap in the basement, RICH PELLEY stumbled across a few spooky cheapies clogging up the U-bend. So here they are (damp and slightly mouldy)...

CodeMasters
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

No prizes for guessing what this one's about (boxing, actually). "okay, okay," you're thinking, "we've seen a fair few boxing sims in our time - what makes this one different?" Absolutely nothing actually. Just your standard slow and rather crappy punch-'n'-block simulation. The only 'highlights' are the foul moves - headbutts and groin punches etc - which you can stick in here and there (providing the ref's not looking, that is). Not that they're particularly thrilling though. And nor is the rest of the game for that matter. It's slightly better in two-player mode, but the thing's so damn slow that I could think of a million and one better things to do rather than be playing this (playing something else, for instance). And just when I thought Codie games were getting better. Ho hum.

Label: Superior Software
Author: C Goodwin
Price: £7.95/£12.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Issa great sport, knoworrimean 'arry? Two muscle-bound clods battering each other senseless until one has so much brain damage that he falls over (or starts doing ketchup adverts). By Fair Means or Foul isn't the first boxing simulation on the Spectrum - Elite's Frank Bruno's Boxing is back in the charts again as a budget re-release - but BFMOF is by far the funniest, 'cos in this one you can cheat.

Basically it's a one or two-player combat game, featuring a selection of fighting moves which, shall we say, don't all conform to the Queensbury Rules. The ring is shown in slight perspective, and the two boxers share it with a dodgy referee who does his best to keep things clean - when he's not nodding off.

You can choose joystick or keyboard control with definable keys, and before starting you lean choose any computer opponent (providing you have reached that level previously).

With the fire button you have eight moves available; move forward, duck punch (which makes you look like a gibbon), duck, low guard, move back, high guard, jerk back and head butt. Head butt!? Yes, it might be a foul move, but it's quite permissible in BFMOF. With the fire button pressed, you have the options of punch, upper cut, kick (another foul), groin punch (an extremely painful foul), body blow, low guard, knee and high guard. Control moves are reversed if your character gets in a clinch by moving too close to your opponent, and ends up facing right instead of left.

While the fighting moves are all pretty precise and useable, reactions are a little slow. Fortunately, on the early levels at least, your opponent is pretty slow too; the first fighter, Mild Martin, often stands quite happily while you punch and kick him to oblivion.

Oh yes, the foul blows. You can only get these in if the ref's attention has strayed. You can judge this from the colour of the silhouettes above the ring; red, no chance, amber, maybe, green, go for it. If you're caught making a foul blow, the ref will stop the fight and you'll be penalised.

Energy bars below the screen show your status; your aim is to outpoint each of six opponents to become World Champion, after which the action carries on with more and more vicious opponents.

The audience is just as rowdy as you'd expect from the sort of people who patronise the noble art; shown outlined against the ring lights, they cheer loudly at the end of each round, joggle up and down enthusiastically and chip in with a range of friendly comments. Other nice touches include the winning boxer punching the air, and the thump as a good blow lands.

There are plenty of good points to BFMOF; the wide variety of fighting moves, the decent sound effects and music, the comments from the crowd ("C'mon Pansy!") and the ref, and so on. It isn't quite smooth or novel enough to make you scream with joy, but it will pass a few pleasant hours of head-punching.

A Superior boxing game???

Sometimes a person has to cheat, simple as that. Whether it's typing in a poke or making illegal moves in a boxing match, sometimes it's the only solution.

In this one or two player boxing sim it's the illegal moves that are needed as you challenge for the Championship. Playing solo, that means taking on six increasingly difficult opponents on your way to the top, and then more in defence of your crown.

There are fifteen rounds per bout and a total of eight available moves, four fair and four foul. The two boxers are viewed side-on, while a referee wanders around the ring watching the boxers - most of the time! A small icon of your boxer in the top corner changes colour according to how much attention the referee is paying. A red icon means he's watching like a hawk, a yellow one means you've got a chance of getting away with an illegal move and green means it's definitely time to start letting loose with head butts, kicks and groin punches. You don't have to keep an eye on the indicator all the time, because the ref often falls asleep and a large speech bubble full of ZZZZ's appears.

If your man gets caught making an illegal move, the ref shouts "foul" and you lose one of your five lives. You also have to be careful not to get too close to the other boxer, because the contestants go into a hold and swap sides. If this happens too often, you lose another life.

By Fair Means... is by no means a good boxing sim. The gameplay is poor and it's got little in it of any challenge. Admittedly it's supposed to be more of a laugh than a serious simulation, but it's doubtful you'll find it entertaining for long.

Reviewer:

RELEASE BOX
Spectrum, £7.95cs £12.95dk Reviewed
Amstrad, £9.95cs £14.95dk, Imminent
C64/128, £9.95cs £11.95dk Reviewed

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 50/100
1 hour: 50/100
1 day: 30/100
1 week: 25/100
1 month: 10/100
1 year: 0/100