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Breakdance harks back to the days when a lot of people thought it was fun to self-inflict injuries of all kinds -- including brain damage -- to the sound of trendy, aptly named 'break' music.

There are four games, and in the first the objective is to clock up a high score by closely following the steps of Hot Feet -- the 'hottest breaker in the neighbourhood' -- whose moves get progressively more complex as the score rises -- a bit like 'Simon says'. A practice mode is available for you to gain familiarity with the various moves (achieved by manipulation of the joystick). Speed of reaction is not important, but accuracy is. If a player makes a wrong move, the message 'Wack Out' appears and the score is reset to zero.

The second game takes the first a stage further. The ferocious Rocket Crew are invading your 'turf'. Various breakdance moves must be copied in order to scare them off before they throw you into the river. The gang's dancers must be taken on in successive breaking battles, until finally they are all defeated.

'Perfections Dance Puzzle' is the third exercise, like a more complex version of the first game but with a time limit. The player competes with Boogaloo Brewster, King of breakdancing. Basically, it's a one to one battle where the opponent performs a whole sequence of moves that have to be worked out and followed against the clock.

The fourth game is non-competitive. You choreograph an entire routine and perform it on stage. There are two screens. The first is a menu screen from which all the moves for the dance are chosen, allowing fourteen possible moves usable in any combination and repeated any number of times up to a maximum sequence of 251 moves. Each time a move is chosen, a dancer appears on the lower part of the screen to demonstrate it.

When a routine is complete, the 'Go Dance' option changes the screen to a stage. The joystick is used to move the character around the stage while the moves are being performed, and the movements can be speeded up or slowed down. Dances can be saved out to tape and reloaded for later use.

The fifth part of the game, the 'Grand Loop', is a successive combination of the first four stages, giving the game a sense of logical progression. All the breakdances are accompanied by what the instruction booklet calls breakdancin' music. Finally, the instructions give a guide to performing some of the real moves mentioned in the game.

This is a strange game, to say the least. It isn't all that difficult to play but, despite an awful soundtrack, it can be quite good fun -- if you have a good sense of humour. However, the multiload aspect is annoying and I can't imagine anybody wanting to save routines. It's something to watch rather than play. If you like this sort of thing, then you can hardly complain at the price. I found it funny for a few minutes but tedium set in soon thereafter.

Presentation 70%
Clear instructions and menu screen. Cassette loading is adequate.

Graphics 51%
Fat, chunky sprites with good animation, and colourful backdrops.

Sound 49%
Lots of it, but not too impressive and very 'samey'.

Hookability 52%
Easy to get into and a bit of a laugh at first.

Lastability 31%
The first three games prove monotonous, but the choreographed dancing is fun.

Value For Money 40%
Not much on offer for three quid.

Overall 35%
Will appeal mainly to breakers wishing to reminisce about the good old days.