Ultimate Body Blows (CD32)

Title		Ultimate Body Blows (CD32)
Game Type	Beat-em-up
Company		Team 17
Players		1 or 2
Compatibility	CD32
Submission	Courtesy of Sean Caszatt

Review
BODY BLOWS was _the_ beat-em-up on the Amiga.  It annihilated the lame
Amiga version of STREET FIGHTER II and grabbed the fighting game crown. It
went unchallenged until the Amiga version of MORTAL KOMBAT appeared.

Team 17 tried to recapture the crown with BODY BLOWS GALACTIC, a
disappointing update/sequel that featured an AGA version but with
hopelessly goofy characters, with ridiculous powers and hard to control
moves.

Now, Team 17 attempts to capture the CD�� fighting game crown with
ULTIMATE BODY BLOWS, a combination of the two original games' characters
and backgrounds.  A whopping 22 characters are available for the player to
choose from.  All the characters from the original BODY BLOWS are back,
along with the entire goofy cast from BODY BLOWS GALACTIC.

Since the only other beat-em-up games available for the CD�� are
INTERNATIONAL KARATE + and DANGEROUS STREETS, both of which are horrible,
ULTIMATE BODY BLOWS wins hands down in terms of being the one to get.

The game improves on the first two in two main ways.  The first is that it
is PAL/NTSC switchable through a menu option.  The second is that the
horrible disk swapping that was really a pain on the first two games
is gone.

I do have some gripes though.  The GALACTIC characters are still too hard
to control and the computer is still too hard to beat even on the easiest
difficulty setting.  No manual comes with the game, so there are no
diagrams of even the most basic moves.  Most of the basic moves are the
same with each character, but it would be convenient to know what they
were to start with.

Overall, though, Team 17 has produced a winner.  It squashes the other
beat-em-ups into the ground and gives the CD�� a game that is easily just
as good as those available on the other console systems.  However, if the
CD�� version of MORTAL KOMBAT appears, ULTIMATE BODY BLOWS may fade from
memory.

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