In each of the reviews I have written so far I have tried to have a small introduction - it's mainly been for me - I'm not actually that comfortable launching straight into a review and so these intros have helped, but with 'Crouching Tiger' I have to break from tradition because this is without a doubt one of the worst games I have had the displeasure of playing.

Now 'Crouching Tiger' is far from the newest film around - it was critically acclaimed back in 2000 (winning 4 Academy Awards and getting 10 nominations!), but one thing that anyone who liked it will tell you is that it was NOT a martial arts movie. This was no Enter the Dragon or Once Upon a Time in China, it was more of a fairy tale that used martial arts only because its characters needed to. The only reason I can see that someone would use the CTHD licence now is because they could not get hold of The Matrix and wanted to make a similar game.

CTHD allows you to take control of the characters Li Mu Bai, Jen Yu, Yu Shu Lien or Lo and follow the story of the movie, trying to retrieve Li Mu Bai's sword. The back of the box tells you that the game includes multiple endings for the characters based on your performance - well, based on the game's performance I'll have take their word for it.

   

So what's so bad with the game? Well let's start at the beginning (and this may seem a little petty) with the box art. So that you know that this is the "game of the film" the cover uses a computer graphics version of the movie poster art - if done well I would have no problem, but to me it looks like one of those dodgy DVD pirates you see down the car boot sale. You then load the game up and are greeted by a menu which would have looked dated on a SNES or a Megadrive.

Anyway - I moved swiftly on - the old "don't judge a book by its cover" thing - and actually played the game. Within minutes I was wanting to look at the box art again. How do you convert a film that won awards for BEST ART DIRECTION and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY? Well, if you are Genki, you produce a third-person beat 'em up in the vein of Lord of the Rings or Buffy - but actually forget to include anything new or anything that was good, fun or praiseworthy in those games.

You run around the screen using the left stick - the attacks you pull off can be either armed or unarmed. As the game starts you are charged by four unarmed opponents - you run at them - they run at you. You press a button at random and let out a rather nice kick that floors two opponents at the same time. You then press another button, a different kick this time takes out another two. By this time the first two are back on their feet, you run towards them - press a third button - this time you pull out your sword and knock them both down again - I'm already getting bored but persevere to see what new and exciting delights are awaiting me. After several hours, I was still waiting…

   

The game manual and box both hint that you should be able to do the spectacular "wire-fu" and martial arts moves, but the whole idea of being able to counter the enemies' attacks and execute precision blocks and counterattacks is just stuff and nonsense - it can be done, but with no skill - it's pure button bashing - plain and simple.

There is no effort required at all in this game - probably the only real challenge I encountered was the guy who uses the long bamboo pole to attack - he can take you down from a distance - but after a few minutes you realise you just need to run behind him and kick him in the head, same as everyone else you encounter.

I have to say that the attacks you do pull off look rather nice - they are fluid and well animated and the resulting blows also sound very nice and powerful but that's the only saving grace. The levels themselves are dull - the first two scenes are very old school - they would have looked a little out-of-date on the PSOne let alone the PS2. As mentioned previously it's just a mixture of every other third person beat 'em up with nothing new - the video clip rewards and bonus play modes are just poorer versions of those in Buffy or LOTR and those games have considerably more depth.

Anyone who fancies an afternoon of martial arts action would be much better purchasing a few Hong Kong Legends DVDs and watching them instead. This game isn't even worth the rental cost!