In days gone by a fair medley of fighting games have graced our computers and games consoles. One day we expected to see one to tower above all previous efforts. That time is now. Tekken 2 boasts super graphics, slick sound, a very generous number of characters and a huge amount of moves, throws and combos to master.

Tekken 2 was the inspiration behind the purchase of my little grey box. After playing my brother's version he had to fight me to get his PSX back as I was only supposed to borrow it for a day or two...or three... or four etc. There are four modes to Tekken 2:- Vs Mode is where two players can select their favourite characters and do battle against one and other. Team Battle is where two players select six each of their favourite characters and they do battle with the "winner stays on" format. Survival Mode has one player choose a character and fight as many rounds as possible with the health bar only being partially replenished between fights. Arcade mode is one player and combines of 10 stages each against a different character ending with Kayuza Devil and once you have done him in a new character will become available when you restart.

The characters all have individual fighting styles from the precision "Bruce Lee" style of Marshal Law to the crash, bang, wallop "get out of my way" style of psycho robot Jack2 and the variation of moves will take an eternity to master.

Created using polygons the characters look very three dimensional and they have been animated superbly. The backgrounds look very nice but the intro sequence is second to none. Once a character completes the arcade mode they are also treated to an excellent FMV depicting a segment of that characters story.

There is a good variation of "fighting" music for each character and the spot effects of characters moaning, grunting, growling and chuntering are done well, but the realistic sound of the bones being broken makes you sympathise with the character on which you have just executed a five move combo resulting in your opponents neck being turned 180 degrees.

In my opinion I have never seen a better fighting game available on any home machine and there are some good one's out there. But there is just that little something extra with Tekken 2 that I just can't put my finger on. Even though it's been around for a while it's still good to go back to even just for a little stress relief, but the two player mode is really what makes these game have lastability. Can't decide who's going to buy the first round at the pub tonight? Don't bother flipping a coin, whip out Tekken 2 and fight over it.