for

Distributed by
Sega

Price: £29.99 Players: 1-4 I never played the original Heavy Metal, but the Geomatrix variant covers plenty of similar ground. It's a 3D beat-em-up that sees the camera spinning around and opponents brandishing big and sharp tools around - as with Soul Calibur - and Dead or Alive, which sees you jump about over different parts of scenery. But making comparisons to other games isn't going to win many points for originality. Based on the adult comic book series, you can choose to play one of another set of oddball human and alien characters, all with blissfully daft names such as Hound, Slash, Zeus, Sarge, Kassey, Stab, Lance, Di, Duke, Talbot, Mayfly and Phantom, all ready to kick each other six ways from Sunday.

Looking at the picture on the right, you can tell how this game will play exactly. There's no doubting it looks and sounds great, but in all honesty is still doesn't shake the edge off the Daddy of all beat-em-ups, the aforementioned Soul Calibur which still retains the class it always had - even on the original Playstation - and whose like is soon to be seen in a PS2 sequel. The contestants move about the playing area like there's no tomorrow - although it's a bit uneasy that as the camera sweeps around parts of the stage disappear otherwise the 'camera' would crash into them - and the loud Iron Maiden-like soundtrack is worth blasting out, but it feels like you don't have as much control over your character as you should, with random button pressing being the order of the day. I'd recommend this as a rental for a good post-pub blast, but since most Dreamcast owners after this kind of fix will already have Soul Calibur... need I say more?

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT	0
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.