Producer: Firebird (Silver)
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Soft Designs

When the challenger drops out, you are forced to replace him in the kickboxing ring - and you find yourself up against that foul-breathing mean man Mick The Meat Kicker (just another abusive term for your Spectrum...).

You're able to move freely about the isometric 3-D playing area, but hard luck - you can't get out of it.

To protect yourself from Mick's pulverising advances you can punch and kick both high and low, or duck and block his aggressive moves. Kicks score higher than punches, but they're more difficult ort home.

Both boxers' endurance levels are reduced when punches and kicks conned. Should your computer opponent's level fall to zero he's defeated, and you pass on to the next level and a fresh combatant. But it's your turn to throw in the towel when you run out of puff.

Endurance reserves are restored by either evading or blocking an opponent's aggressive moves.

Throughout this bloodless brutality a bonus clock runs down at the bottom of the screen; the longer the contest, the tower the bonus scored when you defeat an opponent. And when there's no bonus left the contest is over.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, N/M left/right, SYMBOL SHIFT to fire (keys used in combinations for functions)
Joystick: Kempston
Use of colour: predominantly black line on yellow ground
Graphics: jerky, masked animation frames on 3-D perspective area
Sound: poor, very limited spot FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: one boxing ring, with increasingly competent opponents

Not another Exploding Fist-type game, I thought - and, yes, of course it is. But despite the strangely-coloured trees and yellow grass Kick Boxing is quite enjoyable... at first. The combatants move around the screen quite nicely, knocking the hell out of one another, though as with a lot of martial arts games the controls are pretty difficult to master. But in the end Kick Boxing left me wondering "why bother?
MARK

This latest in a long line of beat-'em-up games shows that the idea is wearing a bit thin. I don't think kick boxing has been the theme of a game before - but this attempt to represent a fast contact sport has failed, and badly! Graphically, Kick Boxing is very simplistic; the badly-drawn characters jerk about the screen in terrible animation. It's also very hard to get the hang of, and boredom sets in quickly. Kick Boxing is poor value even for £1.99.
ROBIN

Urgh! Kick Boxing is very unappealing; the graphics are the best aspect, and they're pretty unimpressive. And the controls are very difficult to master. It's a pity - a successful 3-D boxing game on the Spectrum would be good.
MIKE

Rainbird
£1.99

Ai-eeee-gh-narrrrgha! if you're one of those heretics who thinks unarmed combat games are a load of chop suey, then Rainbird is fighting back with a kung-fu fury that shows there's nothing noodle under the sun. For Kick Boxing is a mega-double delight, combining the punch of pugilism with the kick of karate in a game that's more feet than fists of fury.

The scenario a that the main challenger to Mick the Meat Kicker's kick boxing crown has failed to turn up - and now's your chance, in true Waterfront (or is it Water Margin?) style, to be a contender. Stripped to the waist you have to kick, punch, duck and weave your way round what looks like an oriental garden at Kew. Your best tactic seems to be to dive in with a thunderous attack, whizz up your bonus points then skip free before Mick can redesign your fizzog. And you'll have to be swift 'cos Mick's pretty precipitous on the plates for a tub of lard.

To be honest, not much of the screen's used on game play and the sound effects of synthed slaps are sadly dull. On screen, endurance meters measure your wibbliness, the level of bout difficulty is denoted, and bonus and score points are displayed.

Although it's keyboard compatible, Kick Boxing comes into its own with the sweat of mucho macho joystick jiggling. This almost compensates for the gungy graphics which tend to make Mick and yourself merge into one biffing mass once you're grappling at close quarters.

With a billion squillion equivalents on the market you might think you'd be prawn crackers to shed out - but if karate's where you get your kicks, Kick Boxing is at least worth a shufti.

KICK HIGH

There's been an explosion in martial-arts sims since The Way Of The Exploding Fist, as RICKY EDDY and ROBIN CANDY observe in this good beat-'em-up guide. And the ninjas just won't lie down - all they want to do is...

They started three years ago, when Bug Byte revealed an interesting little number called Kung Fu. It was an admirable wireframe attempt to produce a martial-arts simulation - 'probably the most unusual game to be seen on the Spectrum for a long while,' said CRASH in amazement.

But sceptics thought the genre would never catch on. It took Melbourne House to show them the way - The Way Of The Exploding Fist, which sold more than 150,000 copies for the Spectrum and nearly half a million across all formats.

Since then, nothing's kept the combat games down. They've been grotesque (Barbarian), skillful (Fist) and downright silly (Ninja Hamster).

The genre soon caught the nickname 'beat-'em-ups', as the gameplay always involves a player beating up his opponent, whether the computer or another player.

And with the advent of the 128s and their improved sound chips, the fighting effects became more hideous - the most disturbing beat-'em-up sounds must be the animal squeals on Ninja Hamster.

But most of these martial-arts simulations are so unrealistic, set in pseudo-Oriental fantasy worlds, that it's just harmless surrogate violence - and everyone likes a bit of that.

KICK BOXING
Firebird

41% Issue 42

RICKY: Meet mean man Mick The Meat Kicker - it's a name to be reckoned with. But I don't reckon Kick Boxing is up to much.

The playing area is done in isometric 3-D, but this doesn't affect the gameplay, apart from making it hard to see.

You progress through the levels by killing off one opponent after another, and it's no more inspiring than it sounds.
30%

ROBIN: I'd forgotten just how bad this is! Firebird's representation of the fast contact sport is appalling. The characters jerk around the screen drunkenly, performing poorly-drawn moves that appear physically impossible. There are better, similar games; Kick Boxing is cheap, nasty and almost unplayable.
36%

Label: Firebird
Price: £1.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Tamara Howard

It's not that I don't like kicking people in pyjama bottoms to death. I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy that just as much as the next person. Only not like this.

If you're going to kick someone in jim-jams to death, you might as well know exactly what it is that you're doing. You ought to have some sort of control over your bodily functions (can I say that, without being misconstrued)? You should at least be able to tell which one on the screen is you.

None of which you're actually able to do with Firebird's Kick Boxing Because it's naff.

This is a game with no street cred. And no pyjama tops. The idea is to kick mighty Mick the Meat Kicker before he kicks you and thus win the competition, the crowd's adulation and a Hollywood contract etc, etc.

All very well. You have lots of moves, high kick, low kick, punches, and, most importantly, back off, block and run away. But they all look the same. And none of them seem to have any effect. I found that the best way to score points was just to waggle the joystick about not very challenging really. The points mount up quite quickly, but your endurance level will drop and that'll be you out of the running.

I find it hugely suspicious that when playing Kick Boxing it's possible to get on to the Roll of Honour just for waggling your joystick. I found it even more suspicious that I couldn't identify myself, since both of the fighters on the screen seem to do the same moves at the same time.

And I found the way one of the men kept dropping his trousers when he turned round, very distressing. Good job the graphics aren't up to much.

I'm not impressed. And neither will you be.