Indoor Soccer

ZX ComputingZX Computing Glob Senior

Overall Groan

Magnificent 7 Software £4.95 At last a game that is a true simulation of soccer with fouling, penalties and fights among the players. Sad to say that practically all the basic elements of the game except for the knobbling are crude and substandard. Indoor soccer is sufficiently different from the eleven a side game for it to have made a really original simulation but I suspect that the only reason it was chosen was because there are less players for the programmer to cope with. Those that have managed to make it onto the pitch are afflicted with chronic flickering and colour attribute problems so that often it is impossible to see who is in possession or where the ball is. Another interesting feature is that the crowd (who look like rows of multi-coloured pumpkin-heads) won't give the ball back if it goes out of play, which is not exactly conducive to a good game. But at least it gives you time to perfect your fouling technique which is done by running up to an opposing player and hitting the fire button whereupon he falls on the ground and stars revolve round his head. I'm afraid I haven't yet caused sufficient injury to cause the promised punch up between players but it's not through lack of trying. It's difficult to foul opposing players when they appear to be dematerialising. You can either hack a friend in a two-player option or take on the computer at three different levels of difficulty. When playing in two-player mode it's keyboard versus joystick which won't make for an even game. I would like to be able to say something good about this game as I do like soccer simulations but this one just doesn't have any redeeming features and you can find soccer games already available that are far superior.