Sick? Maybe. But never before has any game (even Mortal Kombat) made decapitation so much fun.
Catherine Channon

Lately there's been a lot of fuss about violence in videogames, and their ability to incite brutality. If there's any truth in this, then Taste The Pain's blood, gore, and graphic scenes of human suffering would surely be enough to push any psycho over the edge.

Licensed by one of America's most notorious rap groups, the Wu-Tang Clan, this beat-'em-up was never going to be a stroll in the park. With Tekken 3 or Soul Calibur vying for the kingship of the beat-'em-up genre, Wu-Tang has a good bash at trying to de throne it. Okay, so it fails; but it does offer a surprising amount of entertainment along the way.

The Versus mode enables up to four players to compete at a time - Shaolin style. This can seem a little intimidating at first - especially when you're being attacked from all angles. To its credit though, you can spend time working your way up the numbers battle by battle thanks to the accessible learning curve. And when so many people complain that beat-'em-ups are too easy, the fact that it's a really tough challenge is no bad thing.

Spending time in the practice mode, in fact, is a must if you're going to succeed. In truth, it's more of a step by step guide, which helpfully displays each move until you master it before moving on to the next. Button combinations can be complex, and you need to learn short and long combos if you're to master the ways of the Wu.