Pitfighter was the very first fighting game I played. I had spent a few hours on the coin-operated arcade version with amazing graphics and was very excited when I found this version for the Sega Master System sitting on the shelves of my local video game store.

As far as fighting games go, this is your basic punch-and-kick-fest, with each character having slightly different special moves. Buzz is your generic big-built wrestling style character, Ty is your agile kickboxer and Kato is a karate black belt who throws awesome palm punches to the face.  In addition to your dangerous body parts, you can use many objects that you find littered around the fighting arena, including knives, crates and even a motorbike! Also keep an eye out for the 'Power Pill' that will temporarily increase the power of your character and be aware of the crowd, who may decide from time to time to randomly join in the fight, attempting to stab your character (tough crowd).

Every few fights you compete in a 'Grudge Match' which is basically an extra round where you fight against a clone of your own character and the winner is the person who can knock their opponent down three times, earning a bit of extra bonus cash if you win. Between matches there is a mysterious leather-clad character in a mask who likes to taunt you and this ends up being the final bad guy who you fight in a 'Championship Match'.

Graphics: 6
This is a very violent game (duh) and although I had played the stunning arcade version first, I still thought the Master System version did ok given the limitations of this console. The animations are still fun and retain that unique feel that comes from the way the original animations were created, using live actors rather than simply being redrawn. Though obviously a fair bit of this was lost in the conversion to a 'lesser' console.

Sound: 3
The fighting sound effects are fine if you want to sound like you are slam dunking a depressed basketball every time you land a kick, or creating the latest techno track when launching a punch combination, and the intro music itself is generally high-pitched forgettable nonsense.

Addictiveness: 7
The toughness of this game and the multiplayer and unique aspects make this quite addictive.

Story: 6
There's not masses of background to the characters, but the overall atmosphere of the game does make you feel like you are progressing through a storyline on your way to fighting the final boss.

Depth: 5
This game is as replayable (or not) as any other fighting game. I'm not sure we buy these kinds of games for the depth of story to them (despite what the Mortal Kombat films would have us believe).

Difficulty: 8
Between having to potentially fight your opponent, the crowd, other players and the mysterious masked end game bad guy, all while executing your own moves and dodging weapons and vehicles, this is quite a tough game for the fighting genre. The arcade version of the game took a great deal of my pocket money as my lives dwindled rather rapidly!!

Overall: 6
Give it a play and see if you like it. Or better yet, try and find a way to play the arcade machine version.