The evil witch of the story. Only the fighter who's tough enough will get to meet her

Seconds out, grapple fans, for Evil Zone, the loud, brash fighter that struts about the manga-style camps flaunting its beat 'em up/shoot 'em up credentials.
Gideon Kibblewhite

This engaging little fighter borrows much from the Japanese hit Eretzvaju, serving up fast-paced, well animated beat 'em up action and characters who can pull off spectacular special moves at the touch of a triangular button. The action is '3D' as in Tekken 3, in that you can move back and forth a little and circle your opponents.

Instead of having to learn memory-testing, hand-contorting attacks and secret throws which the likes of the mighty Tekken demand, Evil Zone sees you launching devastating fireballs and huge nuclear strikes at opponents with minimum effort, leaving them powerless and aghast at the jaw-dropping effects and smooth animation of this beast - which for once really do live up to all the advertising hype.

Evil Zone is a refreshing take on the genre not only because of its 'pick up and play' nature, but also because you spend half the time shooting your opponent - with things like X-Wing-style space ships that can be summoned from mid-air. Anna Williams and her Back Hand Slap? Pah! The Tekken lot are distinctly fly-weight compared with the Evil Zone mob and their vast array of anime weapons.

Being very much a Manga game, Evil Zone has a story (and a splendidly silly one at that). This time 10 different gladiators have been zapped from their respective worlds to fight one another in a tournament, the winner of which earns the right the take on a demonic witch, the boss of the game. The characters (five male, five female) vary from an innocent-looking schoolgirl to a piano-playing psychopath. Defeat all the others and then 'do' the witch, and you can earn all sorts of optional extras. There are also, to start with, 11 nicely drawn arenas to fight in.