When the original Body Blows hit the Amiga it was met with critical acclaim. In every epartment it outpunched, jabbed and kicked its rivals. It left both the Streetfighters conversions totally gobsmacked and floundering in a corner with the proverbial split lip. Body Blows had everything that the overrated coin-op lacked - in a word, playability. While SF2 boasted neat graphics it had little else. Pound for pund, when the two met in the ring Body Blows out-gunned it in every department.

The two main characters in Body Blows, Dan and Junior, having totally destroyed and defeated the Evil Max and his band of nasty cohorts, retired to the South of France. After about a year, Dan and Junior were sitting on a sun-kissed beach reflecting their lot. A year of self abuse, 12 month of hard drinking, 365 days of womanising in the sun. Sitting around a table that has become a parasoled paragon to abuse, they neck the dregs of another Bier Blonde Only daring to glimpse out of the corner of one sorry eye at flabby pectorals and redundant calves, both reach the sad conclusion that in the time it has taken for the sun to rotate around the planet, they have become slobs. But, it's so difficult to be motivated y anything short of blasting the cartilage out of your nostrils when you've defeated a whole world's worth of evil.

What to do to generate enough interest in life? What greater challenge can be met and overcome? There just aren't any, well not on terra firma. Then it hits them in one almighty powdered cloud. They must fight the roughest and toughest aliens, creatures and humanoids throughout the known and unknown galaxy.

To you and I this must seem like a little bit of a far-fetched idea to reach, but we only get two or three weeks of lilo-lying and infra red indulgence to combat. These guys have been at it for a good year, so the conclusion they reach is probably the most natural.

I'm also at odds to discover how one goes about arranging an inter-galactic bout of fisti-cuffs, but our is not to reason why. Just hassle Team 17 for not being bothered to worry about the plot and to have concentrated on first-rate play instead (who, hold your horses and tell 'em the plot - ed).
Anyway, take it for granted that Dan and Junior somehow manage to get through to all th intergalactic punters via the international operator set up the competition. After that they embark on a "my body is my temple" routine. Using the infamous Bullworker and Charles Atlas body map, they make a steady return to their dynamic best.

With the competition set up the rest is down to you bunch of joystick-waggling punters. Incidentally, a few of the facts I've taken the liberty of including you may not find detailed in Team 17's manual, but hey, what's a little artistic licence between reader and writer?

The first thing to say about BB Galactic is that it comes in two versions. There is the standard A500 version which will run on just about any Amiga known to mankind, and there's the A1200 AGA chipset version. This enhanced version doesn't really differ play-wise, but does feature extra colours of the backdrops, better quality music and souped-up sound effects.

All of the action takes place over six different planet. Each planet is the host to two different champions. Each different planet, apart from Earth, has an environment which reflects the attributes of those inhabitants. For example, the planet Titanica is the most technologically advanced, and the two guardians of the planet are Tekno and Lazar..

Now, there are a variety of ways to play Galactic. In one- player mode, having chosen the character that takes your fancy, you journey from world to world in an attempt to defeat each computer-controlled character. In two-player mode, you both choose a character and select a planet to fight it out. You can even hot things up to a higher temperature by selecting the same character, so you both have exactly the same moves.

There's also a tournament mode which allows a greater number of your mates to battle it out in a league affair. You can also change the amount of time you compete for, the number of rounds you fight for and rather interesting Mercy option. In Mercy mode your opponent will leave you alone if you take a big shot on the chin and need a breather. On the contrary, leaving Mercy off means that when you're down and winded your opponent will come steaming in for the kill.

On the character front, there's a very interesting selection for you to grips with. Rather than the normal selection of martial arts experts and kick-boxing freaks, in BB Galactic the choice is much more varied. Of course, Dan and Junior are versed in these particular skills, but the other characters are different altogether. There are robots, dinosaurs, puppets and all forms of elementals.

However, the most amazing character in Galactic must be the stunning Kai-Ti. This woman must surely be the most perfectly pert set of pixels I have ever seen on a home computer. Not only is she beautiful, but she is also as deadly as a female black widow, with some absolutely devastating moves.
Speaking of moves, each character comes equipped with 20 different moves, block and damage inflicting blows. These are arrived at through a variety of joystick movements and baton presses. Each character's moves have been designed to suit the particular personality. Some are more obvious than others, for example, Tekna the robot has such things as thrusters and missiles, whereas Inferno can tumble into a heath-spin or throw a fireball at you.

It grieves me in some ways to say that BB Galactic is brilliant. The first reason is that it's getting slightly annoying that the 17's keep on churning out benchmark products without a slip-up at all. Secondly, I've always been in a slight turmoil with games that are so blatantly physically violent. It's not that I don't appreciate the fact that most games feature the player inflicting some form of punishment on something, even in the cutesy titles. It's just that in the beat - em up category this is taken to the nth degree.

However, for all the moralising it has to be said that Body Blows Galactic is brilliant. The graphics are smooth and beautifully executed, the sound effects beefy, and most importantly the play is compulsively addictive. The one player option is pretty good fun, as you take on the might of the computer. However this pales into the shade in comparison to the two-player option. It's brilliant fun watching a friend take an almighty blow to the skull as you sock him between the teeth of your special weapon.

Quite honestly, Body Blows Galactic is the best beat-'em-up ever to be inserted into the drive of an Amiga. IOK, so its older brother Body Blows and IK+ were both pretty hot, but Body Blows Galactic takes the title. Please, take my advice and visit your software emporium now.

Fighting is no fun anymore. Just because you are the world champ you get every no-hoper in the world trying to have a go at you. It is just such a pity they are no match for a well-placed uppercut, a strategic knee job or the lightning bolt from your ironbar fingers. Time to go elsewhere for some action.

Bodyblows Galactic finds you following in the footsteps of Danny and Junior (the heroes of Body Blows) as they explore other planets in search of head-cracking inspiration. They stumble across the warlike inhabitants of Gellorn-5, Miasma, Feminion and Eclipse and decide to challenge them all to a beat-em-up contest where the victor will be crowned Galactic Champion.

Show off those skills
You and up to eight pals can chose to play one of 12 extra-terrestrial characters with an astonishing variety of fighting skills and special moves. The action takes place over the five different planets of the competition's hosts and there are three difficulty levels to choose from.

It all sounds remarkably similar to the original Body Blows. True, you get to choose a few more characters and feast your eyes on some different backgrounds, but the basic concept remains unchanged. Like any beat-em-up, this game is all about smacking your opponents all over the shop until they finally crumple into a defeated pile. This proves easy enough against human opponents, but not so easy against the Amiga-controlled baddies.

The main problem lies with the sluggish joystick controls. You find yourself waggling like crazy to get some kind of reaction out of your hero only to see him constantly bouncing his dented head against the pavement. Naturally, your Amiga manages to pull the required stunts with breathtaking ease while you just stand there grimacing and doing an occasional back-flip.

OK, it is not really that bad, but it does get very frustrating when you keep being beaten again and again through no discernible fault of your own. Having 21 different joystick manoeuvres to remember really does not help any, either.

Beat those body baddies
The gameplay really is much better in two-player or Tournament mode when you stand a far better chance of actually putting one over your opponents. It is a great feeling being the toughest new kid on the block and it is better than trying the handles on parked cars for an evening.

With both standard Amiga and AGA versions available, Body Blows Galactic is a worthy successor to the original. This certainly won't be the best or most expensive beat-em-up you will play this Xmas, but it comes pretty close.

We all liked Body Blows when we got to see it in April this year, and the team universally hailed it as THE Amiga beat 'em up. I probably would not have given it the roaringly good 89% that Tim Tucker did, but hey, that is Tim's prerogative.

We liked it, Team 17 were pretty chuffed with it, and presumably you all liked it as well, as there is now another one of it.

It is Body Blows Galactic, and although it is not really a sequel, it is a bit more than a data disk. Danny and Junior are the only two survivors of the original, who have jetted across the universe to kick seven shades of goo out of strange new races. Star Trek this is not.

The graphics are a big improvement, the figures are better drawn, better shaded and do not move in the oddly stiff-limbed way of Body Blows. The characters are massively diverse; there is a girl on a hovering skateboard, a creepy ghoul, and even a dwarf on a dinosaur that work as a team and blatantly flaunt the Queensbury rules of gentleman's boxing. These are Good Things.

The down side? Well, the characters just do not seem to hit each other. Weedy sound effects add nothing to the impacts as they get fighting. Maybe blood spats or bigger impact animations would have covered this up.

And then there is the big one. This game is slow. Very, vee-rrrr-yyyy sloooooooow. Compared to the original which was a frenetic fest of blocks and blows, this one is a good 25% slower. Okay, so there is animated backgrounds, but big deal. Go for Body Blows, or read the Mortal Kombat review, but leave this one alone.

Make no bones about it, Body Blows was a damn good game. Streetfighter 2 may have had the hype but Body Blows was the game designed for the Amiga. Naturally it sold in shiploads, and deservedly so, as well as slamming Team 17's reputation even higher up the ladder. This Christmas the story continues with Body Blows Galactic - not so much a sequel more a new version of the original.

NOTHING CHANGES
Essentially only the graphics have changed. The game is exactly the same in most respects, other than the fact that this has 11 new characters, all with new moves and special abilities. The basis of the game is much the same, with you fighting your way through 12 opponents, to receive massive congratulations at the end. We've all seen beat 'em ups, and we all know how they work. After Streetfighter 2 and Body Blows you could be forgiven for thinking that they have gone as far as they can. Unfortunately, you'd be right. Body Blows Galactic is a step in the wrong direction.

The first big problem is the list of opponents. When you are fighting against human (or at least humanoid!) you can feel that you are attacking someone. There is some gratification to be had from kicking someone in the teeth/chest/groin, and this makes the game all the more exciting. When you are fighting against a ghost a robot or some strange creature made up of cones, the game style instantly loses all character. There is little enjoyment to be gained by kicking a robot in the chest. After all, robots can't feel pain.

MISSED ME!
The next problem comes with the playability itself. I found the collision detection extremely frustrating. Half the time you can hit or be hit by something that, by rights, you shouldn't be able to reach. I also found it galling that, although half of the moves involve leaping in the air, it is far too easy to be hit, but very hard to actually land any points yourself.

Not that I'm saying the game is difficult. I finished it on my first go using only one move! Thinking this to be a fluke, I put the game on its hardest level, and tried again, and completed it again. Is this really the kind of game Amiga owners want? Surely we are far enough down the road to be able to supply some sort of intelligent computer opposition in a game like this. The Amiga can already beat us at chess, in wargames and most other tactical games, so why not in a simple beat 'em up. If you are doing nothing more than just repeating a single move over and over again, the computer should recognise this and take some sort of evasive action. Instead, it just keeps on walking into the fight and getting suckerpunched.

Strangely enough, if you try to play it properly (i.e. not using a winning move over and over again) the characters are useless. Dino, Warra and Lazer are as ineffective as they come, yet Kai-Ti is invincible due to her speed and Jawbreaker move - a move that never fails. This imbalance in characters means you will only ever want to play a couple of them, and once you've finished the game with them, the disks will be stuck back in the box and relegated to the shelf.

Body Blows Galactic will sell in droves, almost purely on the strength of the original coupled with the Team 17 brand name. A bit of a shame really, because it does not deserve the success.

True to their word, Team 17 have seen fit to add several refinements to the original the Body Blows. The big question that has to be asked of all this frenetic activity is, 'was it worth it?'. It is a kind of funny kind of answer. It basically depends on the machine you own and the version of the game that you buy.

Yes, that is right there is a version exclusively for the AGA Amigas. Puzzlingly, you have to pay three quid more for it. Forgive me if I am wrong, but does this not strike you as a cheap marketing trick? We all know that the A1200/4000's have superior graphics. It still should not mean that we have to pay through the nose for the software.

Anyway, there are several new characters and a couple of old timers from the original Body Blows. There are six planets to be fought on, each planet being represented by two of the characters.

Characters can be stunned for a short while, leaving them open to attack. The super special moves take varying amounts of time to execute, discouraging their overuse. The speed difference between characters means that it will take a long while before you are going to be able to confidently go round the clock.

There is also a new 'mercy' option. This give you the choice of whether you can corner a character and pummel them to submission, or not (as in the original Body Blows).

So how does it compare to the A500 version? It is faster, looks better (the foreground parallax adds a vast amount of depth), sounds better and, er, that is it. As for being evolutionary from the original concept, forget it. It is more like a trusty old car that has received a tune-up from a greasy old mechanic. Fans of the original will probably be disappointed.