"Well, if the number of enquiring phone calls we get at the office is anything to go by, Street Fighter 2 is going to be the winner by a mile. Not a day goes by without half-a-dozen little squeaky voices piping 'Have you seen Street Fighter 2 yet? When's it coming out? What's it like? Will it have all the moves? What's the control going to be like?' and so on for ever and ever until we rustle some crisp bags into the receiver, say 'Oh no, the line's breaking up!' and pull the plug so we can get some work done. Programmers Creative Materials have been working on the game for six months now, and they appear to be doing a pretty good job. The parallax scrolling and animations of the backdrops don't look like they're going to make it into the finished version, but everything else should survive from the enormously popular coin-op. Unsubstantiated rumours abound of the game's publishers US Gold producing a special multi-button joystick to cope with the myriad of different fighting moves, but even if they don't, three different control modes (for two-button joysticks, one-button joysticks, and combined joystick and keyboard operation) should make sure that everyone finds a method that suits them. The best thing about the Amiga conversion, though, is that it'll sell for £27.99, compared to the outrageous £65 price tag on the Super NES model of the game.

But what's the competition like? Last year's Christmas Number One was Ocean's dire WWF licence, and the fervour surrounding the comical American 'wrestlers' doesn't seem to have subsided any, meaning that Ocean's sequel, WWF European Rampage, has to be in with a pretty strong chance of making a good showing again this year. The main difference in the new game is that it features tag-team competition, but it's going to have to improve a lot on the first effort to persuade the nation's discerning kids to part with Granny's Christmas present money.

The more traditional computer-game names are going to put up a strong fight for the festive market too, though. Lemmings 2, sequel to arguably the biggest computer game of all time, is due to put in a December appearance, and with several significant advancements on the original you have to fancy its chances. Star programmers The Bitmap Brothers also have their eyes on Santa's big toy sack, aiming to fill it with lots of copies of their spiffing-looking Chaos Engine, but the dark horse of the race might well be Sensible Soccer: 1992/93 Season. Sensible Soccer recently spent an unprecedented four months at the top of the Amiga charts, and with loads of new features on display in the updated version, available on it's own or as an upgrade to owners of the original for just four pounds, sales are potentially enormous. We'll just have to wait and see."

That's what we always say.