Deep in the heart of China lives a group of elite Warlords, masters of armed and unarmed combat. Every year they select a small number of students to join their ranks, but each one has to prove himself worthy of the position by showing proficienct in the three fighting arts: Kendo, Karate and Samurai.

This year you have been skilled enough to merit a place in the training program, and now have your chance to impress the warriors by beating the expert opponents they pit against you.

The Samurai Trilogy is spread across four independently loaded sections. Initially, the expansive credits and title screen options appear, offering a selection of languages and a choice of skill practices, Next comes the chance to load a previously saved game, and finally one of the three fighting skills is chosen.

Another series of options is presented prior to combat. One opponent is chosen from a list of then, with his background story displayed. Next comes a fight strategy selection, where a choice is made between Skill, Speed, Stamina and Strength. The final choice relates to pre-fight training - five points are allocated to the four fight strategies for both attack and defence.

At all three skill levels the player is capable of 16 different moves, accessed by combinations of joystick movements in conjunction with presses of the fire button.

The bottom of the screen contains five diminishing bars, four representing the fighter's inner and outer strengths, and the fifth acting as a timer. The objective is to hit your opponent enough times to reduce his bar to a fatal zero. If this isn't done within the allotted time the bout is judged on points, with highest scorer declated the winner.

Having won a fight, the player chooses another opponnet and new options are chosen. The current situation can also be saved for future use if so desired. When enough opponents have been defeated the player returns to the title screen and another skill is loaded.

Anoter detraction is that there never seems to be any contact between the fighters - they just float past one another, even when contact is made. The strength bar may shrink a bit, but there's no satisfying thud or opponent reaction as fist hits flesh - something that makes a beat'em up worth playing.

The backdrops have potential, but the characters are too effeminate and move badly. It never feels like you're involved in combat, just an elaborate oriental dance. Perhaps the programmers got carried away with the glossy presentation, and ran out of room for a decent fighting game - the potential was certainly there, especially with the Kendo and Samurai sections.

The constant interruption of the tactical decision sections are very annoying and hardly seem to make any difference to the outcome of a battle, which, in many cases, can be won by repeating the same manoeuvre over and over again. Whoever designed the sprites has little concept of movement (or anatomy for that matter), and the backdrops are equally bad.