World Soccer

Crash

Overall 74%

Nick Roberts 74%

BIG BUDGET BONANZA Welcome to this month's roundup of pocket money buys, and DJ Nicko is joined by an assistant to help him wade throught the swamp that is the budget bonanza - it's his new 'girlie' Julie! Let's hear it for Julie! (Hurrah! - Ed). Well, actually Julie didn't do anything apart from stare lovingly into Nicko's eyes and provide the jokes (Oi! The jokes are mine! - Nicko). Enough of teenage romance. On with the show... WORLD SOCCER Zeppelin Games £2.99 Football management as you have never seen it before! Manage any of the great British clubs through the leagues of one of the ultimate world soccer competitions around. All the European sides are here to battle against you. I had real high hopes for World Soccer when I first saw it. 'Fantastic full colour graphics', I thought as I looked at the screenshots on the packaging. Once the game had loaded up there they were: an excellent title screen, bursting with colour, animated sequences with a television reporter blabbing about a game and other great graphics on the other game options. The only thing that is missing is the game of football itself. I really can't stand football games which just give you the result of the game without you seeing any action. That is why the reporter option has been included, he tells you the basic details of the match, but that just isn't enough. You can choose from plenty of options in World Soccer. They're all displayed by icons around the title screen. Bank gives you the bank manager and the current balance. On air allows you to choose to have a reporter telling you about the match or not and medic OK's the players who are match fit and available for squad duty. Zeppelin Games really seem to have got it together these days. All their games sport brilliant full colour graphics and resonable tunes. You can't help noticing some of the similarities with many CodeMasters releases though. World Soccer is definitely a game for the football management fanatic: with the added attraction of some good presentation, this is a real winner.

Sinclair User

Graphics 87%

Sound 56%

Playability 60%

Lastability 54%

Overall 59%

Chris Jenkins 59%

Label: Zeppelin Author: Derek Brewster Price: £2.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Chris Jenkins As the eleven thousandth soccer simulator to be published, World Soccer would have to be something special to jerk me out of my lethargy, especially since I normally HATE footie games. So what got me interested in World Soccer? Well, it's a tad more artistic than your usual management mess full of league tables and endless statistics. To kick off the boring lists of statistics are there: the players, the league tables, the results. But the selection screens and inter-screen twiddly bits are remarkably arty. It's also written by someone called Derek Brewster, who Zeppelin describe as a 'former celebrity'. eh? The games is partly icon-driven, with a hand-shaped pointer selecting from your ten options on the main screen. Bank brings you an account (tee-hee) of your financial status, the amount you have stashed and your wage bill. If the situation is dodgy you may have to flog some players to get in the black. The ON AIR option allows you to choose whether you get running commentaries of the matches: Medic shows which players are crocked, and Scout advises you which aspects of your performance need propping up by a wise player purchase. Sell Players allows you to lay off some of your duffers, while League position shows you the current league table. Team Selection allows you to choose your squad, First Eleven shows the one you've picked for the match, and Match Play actually lets you play a game. You might be disappointed to learn that you don actually get to see the match, just the boring commentary from ZTV pundit Joss MacDonald - this is much more entertaining switched off, so the matches actually play themselves through to a result without interruptions. At half time you get to choose substitutes, and after a round of matches has been played you get another look at the league table. It's all very entertaining until the novelty of the pretty icons dies away; then you're left with a straightforward and rather repetitive management game which will probably never make you gasp with excitement. Probably for complete footie-heads only.