Bags of ouch! Rucks of agony! Loadsa pain! Yes, the big boys are in town and it's gonna hurt. The likes of 'Ultimate Warrior', 'Mr Perfect', 'Million Dollar Man' and of course 'Hulk Hogan' are out for blood, so we kitted Corky 'Bonecrusher' Caswell out in sexy shorts and shoved him screaming into the ring. (The plaster casts comes off next week.)

Ocean
£11.99 cassette, £14.99 disk

Yes folks, it's broken bones and multiple lacerations ahoy as large hairy men rampage around the ring trying to kill one another. The 'Wrestlemania Belt' is up for grabs, so alone or with a mate, let's go for it!

Choose one of the three characters - Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior or British Bulldog - then enter the ring to kick some butt. Five rock 'ard opponents need bashing before you get your hands on the coveted WWF belt: Mr Perfect, The Warlord, Million Dollar Man, The Mountie and finally Sergeant Slaughter (sound like just the sort of fellas you'd take home to meet your mum - Ed).

First up is the pretentiously named Mr Perfect (wot's Nicko doin' 'ere? - Ed). Before you crack skulls, there's a great slanging match between combatants where you chuck as much abuse as possible. Mr Perfect (or whoever) spouts verbal diarrhoea to which your character has three possible answers.

When the shouting's out the way, the violence starts. Each round lasts up to five minutes and the aim is to pin your opponent to the canvas for a count of three. Sounds easy, but most of these dudes eat Shredded Wheat for brekky, box and all!

COME DANCING!!

Each contestant has a personal strength bar which repeated blows knock rapidly floorwards (along with yourself). The usual wrestling type moves are available - outside the ring these would pull the perpetrator up on an assault charge. But here you can cheerfully punch, kick, strangle and generally mutilate the opposition, although when not engaging in these activities, grappling is the order of the day (a la Come Dancing). In this situation, violently thrashing the joystick raises the level of a 'waggle-o-meter' that appears especially for the occasion.

Each fighter has their own special move, with strange names such as Gorilla Press, Perfect Plex, Drop Headlock, Power Slam and Camel Crotch... Er, sorry, Clutch. Winning the grapple gives you enough 'oomph' to use this and finish off the enemy.

Flat on the canvas, your pixelised alter ego is (quite understandably) at his most vulnerable. But don't panic (yet) because if sufficient energy is possessed, you can whack the fire button like mad - this pulls your wrestler back onto his pins. But if the old energy bar reads zero, he's too knackered to rise and it's Game Over.

Remember, fight for your life 'cos the WWF belt is your only goal. So load up WWF Wrestlemania, wear a pair of Y-fronts over your trousers and go kick some seven-foot tall, 300-pound American wrestler's ass. (I must point out Europress refuse to pay the hospital fees if you're silly enough to try it.)

MULTIPLE MOVES

I've watched a couple of video recordings of WWF wrestling but can't make head nor tail of it. It seems just as phoney as the British Saturday afternoon 'psycho granny with half a brick in the handbag' version, which is sadly no more.

In Ocean tradition, the game's nicely presented, graphically impressive and, on the whole, very playable. The sprites are all monochrome, but even a non-WWF enthusiast like myself recognised Hulk Hogan (who doesn't, these days, after his appearance on The A-Team?).

Unusually for a fighting game, there are an impressive amount of moves available. Most games of the genre are limited to a few kicks, punches etc and that's yer lot. Here you can punch, kick, drop kick, climb the posts, leap on your opponent's head and stamp on him when he's down (great fun!).

But there's one small thing that widdles on the proverbial bonfire, and that's the need to waggle the joystick like a wild thing when grappling with an opponent. Maybe I'm showing my age because I was completely cream-crackered after a couple of bouts. I don't know which was in greater danger of snapping, my arm or the joystick. There were definite creaking sounds from somewhere before I'd finished playing.

But it's well worth all the pain and suffering to kick the stuffing out of either a computer-controlled adversary or human pal. WWF Wrestlemania is gonna grab you by the lapels and pin you to the canvas.

MARK [84%]

After watching a little WWF wrestling, I can safely say Ocean have captured the atmosphere of this strange sport perfectly. All your favourite characters from the shows are here complete with a few choice phrases to bawl at the beginning of a fight. WWF gives lots more freedom of control than most beat-'em-ups. You're not restricted to boring punches and kicks, or the ring, either: throw the scum into the crowd and continue the fight there! WWF Wrestlemania is an excellent game packed with all the action and excitement of the sport. Some may find it a bit difficult at first but you soon get the hang of crushing limbs with your bare hands!
NICK [82%]

Ocean
£15.99 disk/£12.99 cass
Reviewer: James Leach

This wrestling lark seems to have really got out of hand. It used to be that fat bloke Big Daddy battling his enemy, Giant Haystacks, but nowadays the men involved are bigger, louder and probably smellier than ever before. And in WWF you get to play a large man with an unpleasant moustache called Hulk Hogan. No, I mean the man is called Hulk Hogan - the moustache hasn't got a name.

If you've never heard of it, there's this thing called the World Wrestling Federation. It's basically a load of massive blokes who meet up at interesting venues to shake hands politely, slam each others heads on the floor, spit at the audience and avoid the grannies' handbags.

You can choose to play either Hulk Hogan, the British Bulldog or a Chinese blokie (called, er, Bim Bam Bom or something). Strength-wise they're all about about equal but they've got different fighting skills, so you can tell them apart. Once you've chosen your big guy it's time to go up against the first opponent, a guy called Mr Perfect. Before you climb into the ring with this dweeb, the two of you have a slanging match. He says things like, "I m perfect and you're not, so I'm almost certain to win." Okay, Mr Perfect we'll see about that!

LOOK AT MY STAMP COLLECTION

With all the boring preliminaries out of the way, the two dudes climb into the ring and the fight begins. You can either punch or drop-kick your opponent, grapple with him or charge him (anything up to £50 if he's got a bankers card, ha ha).

If you punch or kick him his energy is reduced by smallish amounts. The problem is that it's pretty hard to hit him, like all good wrestlers he's able to dodge you. If you're really good, you might be able to knock him to the floor as well. This is where it starts getting really exciting, 'cos now you can stamp on him or lie on top of him and get a submission.

Grappling's good too, it involves a bit of incredibly fast joystick waggling. If you're faster than him you end up chucking the guy to the floor, sitting on his head and getting another submission (unless he wriggles out). Charging is the best though. You bounce off the ropes and run towards your fat enemy at a frightening speed, you then smash into him and send him flying out of the ring. If you're quick, you can jump out of the ring as well and continue beating him up right in front of the judges (who cant do anything because you're about six times as big as them).

And this is why WWF is such fun. Instead of just wrestling, it's a beat-em-up with loads of violent moves which have different body-flattening effects. When the baddies try the same moves on you, there are several ways to get out of them (the easiest thing to do is run to the other side of the ring, but you'll have to find the dangerous ones out by experience. Practise makes perfect and all that.

WHAT? NO JERKS?

The graphics in WWF are really slick. Considering that there are so many moves and, er, positions, the game is cheeringly jerk-free. Unless you count Hulk as a jerkm which you wouldn't 'cos you're probably smaller than him. It's all made even more exciting (yes, even more exciting!) by great thumping and grunting sound effects. This means you can get a rather large amount of satisfaction from leaping into the air and bringing your feet squarely down on someone's ribs.

Yep, WWF is a pretty classy fight-game. The wrestling angle sets it apart from any number of martial arts combat games, and the variety of throws and wrestling moves makes it more interesting than your averge kick,-punch-somersault-kick-beat-'em-up.

The idea of getting your opponent onto the floor and fixing him in a hold (which involves hitting the fire button really quickly to stop him escaping) is pretty stonking too.

As if all that wasn't enough guess what it's also got? Yes, you've hit the nail on the head! A completely wonderful and superb two-player option. I'll put my reputation on the line here (what reputation? Ed) and say that its the best two player game that's been seen on any Speccy fighting game. It's quick, accurate and when you're playing you can tickle the person playing next to you at critical moments. Hurrah!

REPLAY

Please welcome! From Dublin! Our new reviewing chap, Philip Kiernan! (Come on, don't be shy.)

The Hit Squad
£3.99
061 832 6633
Reviewer: Dave Golder

Right, I'll level with you. Stuart of the clan Campbell was supposed to be reviewing this but he's vanished into the Twilight Zone. So you've got me instead. You know, the one who does the Killer Kolumn. What do you mean, all he knows about is SF? I know my Speccy games, me.

Take WWWF for example. It's got the kind of multiload that makes 2001: A Space Odyssey seem really fast-paced. The tape whirrs, the screen flashes (exactly the way the Star Gate in 2001 didn't) and you get an option scree. Let's choose Hulk Hogan (well, Ultimate Warrior was a rubbish film and I always hated British Bulldog at school). The tape whirrs then you're told to turn the tape over. The tape whirrs - oooh, something exciting at last.

Er, maybe not. Mr Perfect makes some cutting remarks about our Hulky. Never fear, 'cos you can choose an insult to fling back - not that it's in the Vogon poetry league of inflicting physical pain; more Pam Ayres. Then the tape's off again. Yep, we had to endure a good few minutes' loading for that nonsense.

Finally, the game proper. A US_style wrestling sim that's nothing like the sport it's based on - you don't get to rehearse your moves with your opponent before the bout. Instead, you have to use combinations of joystick movements or keyboard presses to make your wrestler perform kicks, hits and hugs, not to mention flying and running versions of the same.

There's some frantic icon-prompted waggling and button-pressing as well (surprise, surprise). Waggle or press fast enough and you can mangle your opponent to a pulp - and I don't mean '50s SF comics.

There's a decent range of moves and the controls seem logical (Captain) though unless you make sure you're dead level with your opponent you end up flying past him when you perform a move. Strangely, the Speccy-controlled wrestlers never have this problem. Two-player mode is fairer, but finding someone daft enough to play against could be difficult.

It's all a bit humdrum and becomes very samey quicker than the Nightmare On Elm Street movies. The names of your opponents and their insults might change but the gameplay never varies. Buy Deep Space Nine on video instead.

Label: Ocean
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £12.99 Tape, £15.99 Disk
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes

Welcome to WWf Wrestlemania. As promised in last month's preview we've got the lowdown on the whole game, beamed by satellite straight to SU Towers, London, courtesy of the WWF and Ocean. This afternoon our commentators are Garth "The Whole Deal" Sumpter and Alan "Brick Outhouse" Dykes.

WHOLE DEAL SUMPTER: Well Al, I'm darn glad we turned up here this evening 'cos we're going to witness the downfall of that big sissy Hulk Hogan!

OUTHOUSE AL: Well I gotta disagree with you there Whole Deal, Hogan has the arms, Hogan has the skill and Hogan has the prettier face, and you can bet that all those Hulkamaniacs out there in Spectrum land are backin' him too, he's just gotta win.

WHOLE DEAL: So what does the game look like from the beginning then?

OUTHOUSE: You know Whole Deal it looks real good. Ya start off with a choice of three wrestlers; Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior and someone very close to home, Leeds in fact, The British Bulldog. The basic moves include punching, kicking, shoulder charges, jumping high kicks, ground kicks and of course floor pins. These are simply activated by wiggling the joystick in the direction you want to go, or moving it up and down for high or low kicks then pressing the fire button. Easy as pie! In addition each wrestler has a special move, Hulk's is the pile driver, Bulldog's is the powerslam and Warrior's is the gorilla press. When armlocked with an opposing wrestler ya gotta wiggle that joystick and if you do it faster than him you'll throw him and see your special move, if not you'll see his! When you're lying on the ground or pinned down ya gotta press the fire button as rapidly as possible to get back up before the three count.

WHOLE DEAL: Hold on. ya mean to tell me that there's only three wrestlers in the game?

OUTHOUSE: No ya great daft Brummie. Hogan, Warrior and Bulldog are the guys that YOU get to use, the opposition comes from the bad guys. Mr. Perfect, the Warlord, the Million Dollar Man, the Mountie and Sergeant Slaughter. These guys all have their own special moves as well.

WHOLE DEAL: Right whadda ya think of the game overall?

Outhouse: Whole Deal I think they gave you the wrong name, 'cos this game is really the whole deal! It's good in single player mode but really pins you down in the two player scenario where you can assume an identity and whack all yer pals. The graphics represent each wrestler extremely well and the sprites are very big. Action is well animated and all the moves are there. Unfortunately the ring takes up most of the screen so you can't actually see your wrestler if he climbs up one of the corner posts, nevertheless jumping from one is still lethal and the soundtrack and introduction are wicked too.

WHOLE DEAL: Well B.O. (phew!!) we re basically looking at a darn fine game, it puts all the action and all the special moves of real WWF wrestling right there in yer Spectrum. It's a pity there aren't any difficulty options and it doesn't show more ringside action but the package as it stands lives up to all expectations.

OUTHOUSE: Yep! Roll on Hulk Hogan.