Big bad company Centro Holographix has taken two human subjects, turned them into holograms (fairly solid holograms, but we will put that down to artistic licence) and for the sake of economy put them both into one body.

This has obviously irritated Hammerfist, the tall, dark, violent male, as well as Metalisis, the tall, blond, violent female who, by the way, has a kick like a Thai boxer on steroids. They decide to steam into Centro, do the business and leave the place looking like Bournemouth beach after a friendly footy match.

Unhappily the company feels it has a right to stop secondary fighting. They decide to lob in a few guards, the occasional zipping robot, a few traps, the odd giant ant and some militant vegetables in order to protect their property.

Both Hammy and Metty play their own roles in the game. The former is skilled in firing laser bolts from his... er, hammer-like fist - you will need to keep picking up the red power-ups with the Ls in the middle in order for this weapon to function. Failing this, he can use a hammer-action fist. This latter weapon is handier than you might think - some of the stooping, white-overalled guards will duck laser fire.

Metalisis is no slouch herself. While Ham-the-man is beefy, he is no good at all at leaping onto higher levels or moving at any speed. Metalisis is highly reminiscent of Daryl Hanna's high-kicking flick-flacking android from Blade Runner. She also comes armed with side kicks and a pretty neat line in ducking and jumping.

Moving between characters is simple enough, you just push the joystick up and shazam! Each of the characters then has their own moves and weapon manipulation - a handy little ID card fills you in on this lot. Once you have got the moves sorted out it is time to get into the fray. Each screen you meet comprises a number of enemies, maybe a puzzle or two and some computer screens to head butt. Once certain of the screens have been busted and a few droids wasted, the security on the room will have been breached and it is time to move on to the next.

Each guard, droid, terminal or vegetable destroyed provides power-ups, energy or weapons but beware, the Master is also watching you. Occasionally, when his (or it might be her) energy is built up, each of the power-ups becomes a deadly skull-faced anti-matter blob. Avoid these at all costs. You should also be aware of the re-charging stations along the way. Plugging into these follows the same routine as terminal bashing. Again watch out, you may wel send too much charge up your central circuits and end up by frazzing yourself - game over!

With all this going on you might think that death would come quickly, but far from it. Hammerfist has the luxurious edge in that it allows you to play and play for hours on end. Every time you look like dying, you head back to the recharching point, find yourself a strategic spot and stand there blasing the foe. Relax for a while in a secluded storeroom and catch your breath. Once you have rested up, it is back to the fray with a vengeance. Playing with a little though and some skill you could keep going for days.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Nice bit of scrolling here. All very smooth with no jagged edges which suddenly mke you realise that you are not in fact there but are in a small bedsit in East Molsey. The flick-flacks of Metalisis are particularly joyful to watch as are the exploding backgrounds. Nothing appears static for too long which gives a pleasantly manic feel to the whole thing. The soundtrack is fairly work-a-day, nothing to write to Smash Hits about. The effects are also passable with the odd explosion and rather emasculated laser burst.

LASTING INTEREST

Tons and tons of it. Because you can keep playing for hours, you can really explore those rooms and work out some tactics. This latter point, tactics, raises Hammerfist from a basic horizontal scrolling hack'n'slash to a different level of gameplay. When the Master becomes active, there is no point in blasting for power-ups, you have to think a little. Each screen provides its own difficulties, each puzzle its own solutions. Great stuff.

JUDGEMENT

At first sight you could be fooled into thinking that Hammerfist was merely another bish, bash, bosher. It is possible to play it like that. But do not be fooled. Reflexes are taxed to the limit and brain cells are not left to atrophy. Reaching the end of this outing is certainly not the easiest task in the world and for once you really do want to reach it. One problem did crop up in the 'Room of the pumping screws' - if you fall off one of the platforms there is no way of getting abck - you do not die, but you are not on the screen either. Aside from this, Hammerfist is definitely a game to keep you busy for a long while.

Forged from the talents of Mev Dinc (father of the Last Ninja), John Twiddy (man of many a high score table), the amiable Hugh Riley and Amiga programmer Andrew Bond, Hammerfist is Vivid Image's more than worthy first entrance to the Amiga market.

Hammerfist is an out-and-out arcade game, with a suitable arcade plot. A wrinkle-faced megalomaniac known as the Master is grabbing all the world's top talents and turning them into obedient holograms. It is down to Hammerfist and his counterpart, Metalisis, to overthrow the Master.

The Master is hidden at the end of one hundred and twenty-eight screens, each one of which is different. To start with each room is locked. The security locking system will only deactivate when enough objects have been destroyed, freeing Hammerfist.

Blowing a room apart can be done in several ways. Method One is to run about blasting all the aliens, robots, fish and plant life. Method Two is pretty much the same, except taking time out to wreck computers and furniture.

Hammerfist is truly the man for the job. Armed with a laser spitting glove that doubles up as a jack hammer, he is deadly. His main drawback is that he is about as athletic as a tree sloth. So when it comes to jumping about and somersaulting a quick jab up on the joystick transforms Hammerfist into Metalisis, his highly agile female alter-ego. A hermaphrodite in every sense.

And that is Hammerfist. There is not a lot to it, but what is there is superb. Hammerfist is bright, well coloured and full of action. The sound is pretty smart too, with a euro-bop tune ringing out of the speakers.

One game that could be converted to coin-op and survive. Fast, furious and pretty damn good. You cannot afford to miss it if you are a serious arcadester.

Holograms are taking over the world. Now suddenly they're crawling all over Frosties packets. Worse still, the great Lord Olivier was swallowed up by a rogue hologram and forced to appear in a crap musical while the rest of the world believed he was dead.

In the distant future, when Thatcherism is just an embarrassing memory, a rather nasty company Metro-Holographix produces holograms so horrid that they've taken over two cities. They've come a long way since the days of Frosties. Today the breakfast table, tomorrow the world.

Two holograms have been fused together and now can't decide whether they're the very male Hammerfist or the decidedly female Matalisis. Understandably they're a bit miffed so they set out to destroy the hub of the company and regain their individuality. After all, it's rather expensive having to buy two sets of underwear all your life.

To get to the centre of the company, the harassed holograms have to battle through loads of screens packed with colourful deadlies. Each screen has a security device which must be disabled before the next screen can be reached. And don't think you'll have a clear shot at them. Oh dear me no. This is no Salisbury Plain "Take aim. Fire." It's more a case of "Get onto ledge. Take aim. Get knocked off ledge by a drone. Swear." It's not all laughs being a hologram. Ask Tony The Tiger.

Paul: When I was young, chaps were chaps, gels were gels and transsexuals were shot on sight. Nowadays, girls wear trousers and drink stout while men sip Bacardies and spend their weekends wearing the latest Paris lingerie. (Are you sure about this? Ed.) Not even holograms are safe from the sexual confusion. One moment they're striding along a corridor confident in the knowledge that they're a tough - if slightly ungainly - heavy called Hammerfist. One joystick flick later they're performing acrobatics in a leather leotard. This sort of confusion can really screw a hologram up.

Schizophrenia is not the only problem that will face you on this far from straightforward beat 'em up. Working out what you should do to disarm the security system while being attacked by billions of nasties is difficult.

Though progress is a bit tricky, so is death. This is one of the great plusses of the game. There are loads of bonus icons to be gained by destroying any nasty that gets in your way. So if you're being hammered on one screen then you can go back to an easier screen to pick up some extra energy and laser ammo for another go.

However if you don't pick enough of them up then "The Master" becomes "Active" and all bonus icons become energy draining skulls.

Combine the tricky but challenging gameplay with some dramatic graphics and an excellent soundtrack and you're looking at a pretty nifty shoot 'em up. Hammerfist may defeat you but it certainly won't bore you.

Today's holograms are feeble, flickering illusions, monochromatic and insubstantial. But in the future these three-dimensional phantasms have been transformed into flesh and blood by the Centro-Holographix Corporation, which uses personality matrices of people to create exact duplicates. Using these bizarre creations the company has taken control of Earth's two major post-apocalypse cities.

The latest two holographs are the male leader of a Firearms Suppression Tactics Unit (FIST), codenamed Hammerfist, and a female, East European Assassin now known as Metalisis. While being held in stasis pens, a computer malfunction fused the two holograms into one. This isn't as messy as it sounds, since it means they both inhabit the same body which can take the form of Metalisis or Hammerfist as they wish. What's more their psychopathic instincts seem to have never been cured...

Nevertheless, spending their lives inside a single body holds little appeal for them. C-H's latest assassins have turned against it, and plan to destroy the corporation's brain - The Master. If anyone can do it, they can. Hammerfist is named after his cybernetic hammer-shaped fist, which packs a powerful punch. But even more powerful is his piston-fist, a limited energy unit which can pulverize almost anything. And for long-range targets he carries a laser gun (again a limited number of shots). Metalisis carries no weapons, but can perform a lethal high kick and headbutt. She's also more agile and faster than Hammerfist.

When baddies are killed they sometimes leave orbs that give extra units for the powerfist, laser, or increase one or both character's life force. But if you don't get the orbs in time, they disintegrate, building up The Master's power (bar at the top center of the screen): whenever a baddie dies it leaves an energy-sapping skull. Besides orbs, energy can be restored by powerpoints scattered through the complex. They make the holograms glow when they plug in, but watch out - too much and they blow up!

The Hammerfist team begins its quest in an undersea city, a single load on the Amiga, split into two on the C64 with the latter including the entertainment or Pleasure Dome sector. This half of the game end when the team beats a massive sea monster.
The second half begins with the team entering caves, searching for an airshaft that will take them to the surface if they can beat a massive, mutant ant. The final C64 load is a city in a ruined wasteland. The Centro-Holographix complex is here with the defeat of The Master as the final objective...

Hammerfist has just 32 screens in all, but this isn't do to any laziness on the programmers' part. Instead they've tried to make each and every screen virtually a sub-game in its own right. To exit any screen you must destroy everything on it, making completing the whole game a formidable task. And for those who manage it, Vivid Image have already started planning the sequel!