CDS
£12.99/£14.99

Lordy! It's started. The spate of football games that plague us in the summer have begun to arrive and the latest is European Superleague.

But hold on, this is rather good as its a management game rather than a 'watch 22 stick figures hobble around a green screen' affair. And despite being a management game with no arcade elements, this one's full of graphics and generally seems, well, trendy.

Firstly, you're asked to choose one of the three difficulty levels and pick one of the eight teams available to manage: Arsenal, Rangers, Barcelona, AC Milan, Marseilles, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and PSV Eindhoven. The aim of the game is simple: to be managing the European Champions by the end of the season. Although this need not be the team you started with, as managers can transfer from team to team, as can the players.

All the actions and decisions come from your office in which there's a desk, a telephone, an intercom, filing cabinets and other things. By clicking on the objects you control your environment. The telephone connects you to the trainer, other managers and the local newspaper. The intercom summons your secretary, the groundsman and a talent scout.

Weekly schedules are set out in your diary and these have to be carefully adhered to because if you miss a training session or a board meeting the chairman brands you a slacker and fires you.

Each player is allowed 20 hours of training per week, so it's best to make sure they've done their full quota before a Saturday match - being thrashed 12-0 is a tad embarrassing.

The match itself is more of a running commentary than a game; a few well drawn screens appear along with the text. Depending on the final score, the chairman will either praise or tear you apart at Monday's meeting.

Even though I'm no great lover of football manager games I found European Superleague great fun to play. There are plenty of options to choose from so you don't become easily bored. In fact you're kept very busy indeed, balancing the books, sorting out team tactics and training, buying and selling players... the list is endless. The graphics are also top notch, especially the 'snapshots' that appear during a game.

I agree totally with Nick: this is one of the best football management games around.

MARK [78%]

To make a football management game interesting to play you need to represent the options and decisions you make with lots of detailed graphics. That's exactly what's been done with European Superleague. Even if you don't know the lint thing about managing a football team you can get into this straight away. There are different sprites for each player, managers of other teams and the press, which are shown on different backgrounds for each part of the game. You start on in the board room chatting to the big boss and can visit the training field, decide on tactics and swot up on the team account by the touch of a pointer on the office screen. Many management games are let down by the way they represent the actual game of football. Instead of boring text telling you what's happened, you get snapshots of the match, showing winning goals and miraculous saves. European Superleague is one of the best management games I've come across in ages.
NICK [82%]

CDS
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Linda Barker

I know it's a terrible thing to admit but I've never been to a football match in my life! Dreadful, isn't it? But that's why I'm doing his review. Y'see, according to CDS, European Superleague is the biggest and the best football management sim ever in the history of the world - so Andy said it'd be as good a place to start as any. Mmm. I'm not convinced. But let's have a look anyway.

OOH, I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU MANAGE!

European is played out with the old menu and cursor method so it's pretty easy to pick up. As the new manager, you take over the team's account and squad files. You've got 20 players whose various abilities change throughout the season and so it's up to you to pick and change the squad at various junctures so you can go on to win the Superleague. To do this you have to beat 7 other teams.

And it's a hard slog all the way. The chairman's always keeping a watchful eye over you, and if you're really awful you'll be called into the boardroom - eek! (His tolerance level depends on which level you choose to play at - in the first he's very nice and in the third he's a right bast. To keep him sweet, simply win a few matches!)

HOW TO WIN MATCHES

In the days leading up to a match there's plenty to sort out with the press, the trainer, your secretary, the groundsman, your scout and the other managers. All your contact with people is done over the phone or the intercom (which both make very nice buzzing noises!). unless you go out for a training sesh with the lads.

Of course, the most important thing is to get your team in shape. This means giving them loads of training and arranging meetings to work out which tactics you want to adopt against which teams. You don't actually get to play the matches (like Kick Off and Gazza 2) which is a bit sad, but you can alter your tactics and make substitutions.

So what did I think of my first proper footie 'experience' then? Well, I didn't find it that addictive. But then that's probably because I'm not incredibly into these management things. It's very long and very difficult - which is why it'll probably appeal to so many enthusiasts. And it's not just the size that makes it stand out (oo-er) - there are lots of neat touches too, like the little pics of the team and all the other surprises you come across (which are a nice surprise). And it certainly comes up trumps in the way you can interact with the other players and members of staff. So - not perhaps the intro to footie that's going to make me a die-hard fan for the rest of my life, but all in all (and for all the rest) really quite good.

Label: CDS Software
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £12.99 Tape, £14.99 Disk
Reviewer: Alan Dykes

Make 'em sweat!. That's the solution for any football team that loses by six goals or more, and believe me at European Super-league level this can happen. As manager of a top European side, you must lead your team to championship victory in the face of massive odds and three difficulty levels in this challenging football management sim.

During the course of the year you must deal with the press, your team fitness and morale, game tactics, the stuffy old club chairman, a nagging secretary, hawking opposition managers, the skulking groundsman, an over cheerful trainer and a team that looks tougher than a squad of Italian riot police. Phew! what a task.

Make no mistake folks, this is an office bound job. In the main screen you are behind a desk with your very own diary, telephone, intercom and picture of the family. Other objects in the office include a filing cabinet where team reports are stored and a door which gives you access to the outside world. Control is exercised, (press-ups and sit-ups ten times a day), by using the keyboard to position an arrow over the symbol you want to use, then activating a range of options.

There is a lot happening in this game so even if you haven't anything pencilled in your diary to do, make sure you keep busy, remember there's more to being a manager than wearing a sheepskin coat. The problem is that slow gameplay means there is a great temptation to skip off home early, however this type of play will leave the team in trouble and get the manager fired!.

The graphics are competent without being stunning, your secretary is no Betty Boo just tough as diamond boot studs! The same faces keep appearing throughout the game and the main office graphics are quite clear and pretty.

The Superleague management routine can get monotonous unless you really understand (or really want to) what you are doing. Each week passes very slowly unless there's a midweek game, while computer controlled home and away matches take place quickly and without any on screen play.

CDS have obviously put a lot of effort into designing European Superleague as an in-depth management game, thus it takes time to figure out and then even more time to master. As such it might be viewed as a long term investment, but only if you're a dedicated fan of sports management sims.

GARTH:
Taking your team to the top in this sim could prove harder than winning the real European League Cup! But perseverance will pull you through coupled with aggressive tactics, so go in studs up!