GBH
£3.99 re-release

Footballer Of The Year 2 is a strange game. It has elements of football management and some of a quiz but you new never actually get to play football at all. The questions usually only need a yes or no answer (controlled by pressing a direction on the joystick).

Most of the game is controlled through menus, each with well-drawn and coloured graphics to represent the available options, which are Play, Double Or Nothing, State Of Affairs, Transfer and Career.

Play, for example, allows you to select the moves your players make when they play a match. The moves are shown as if on a blackboard and when you've selected which moves to use you just sit back and watch the action. The actual match is shown from above and the players are colourful. Most of the time while I was paying, my shots at goal missed pathetically!

The trouble with this type of game is that you can never get away from the screens of text that are needed and pop up endlessly. They may feature essential information but, to the normal gamesplayer, they're heading towards Dullesville, Arizona. Fans of football management games will find this a refreshing change from the usual boring text-only games and boffins on the world of football will especially like the quiz section, but don't expect soccer action.

Gremlin/Gary Priest
£ cass, £14.99 disk

Footballer Of The Year II is finally here. The aim is quite simple, to become the country's top striker. Not an easy task: you need dedication, patience and a copy of this game. Enter your name and choose a skill level (1-9), pick a league team for name one in editor mode) and a national team, just in case you are picked for an international side.

You are then offered seven icons - they are state of affairs (le how your team is doing), your career successes so far, whether to load or save a game, transfer cards, quit the game, double or nothing and play a match. Your team starts at the beginning of a brand new season and can play league matches, Gremlin Super Cup, UK Super Cup, European Super Cup and World Super Cup matches. You can also try for transfer to another side, or play Double or Nothing. You start the game with £10,000 and Double or Nothing is a good way to try and gain more. Choose how much to gamble, then answer correctly a question put to you. Do this and you're asked whether you wish to collect or gamble. You have three chances to gain money.

A bid for transfer costs £5,000 for a transfer card. A team comes up with an offer, and if you accept you are given the terms of acceptance: either score three goals in the next game, or answer three trivia questions correctly.

But this game is all about scoring goals, so if your team is playing, click on the boot Icon which takes to the match. Goal cards are used to increase your chances of scoring and you start the game with ten (extra cost £600). Prior to the game you will be asked which cards you want to use (each one represents a different tactical skill).

Give 'em hell, champ! This is the sort of game I like with plenty of chances to 'make a few bob. Footballer Of The Year II is a strategy footy game rather than a 'punt the ball around' type, and I quite enjoyed answering the trivia questions and manoeuvering around trying to transfer to different teams: worthy of consideration if you liked the original.

MARK [76%]

Oh great. Just what I always wanted, yet another football game. Gremlin seem to be very fond of this type. So what has Footballer Of The Year II got that none of the others had? Not a lot really. It s more trivia, but the big excitement is that this time you have to answer questions for money. The more money you get the more famous you become. Some of the graphics are quite good and colourful, and musically there are some well written tunes and jingles. As in other games you will only like this if you are a big soccer fan and know all the questions that the game throws at you. Footballer Of The Year II has nothing ultra special to offer, except perhaps new questions for the football boffins. A bit fourth division quality if you ask me. Sorry.
NICK [49%]

Gremlin
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Football game? Call Or Berkmann!" is the usual cry, based on my understandable fondness of this popular (if much derided) genre. Still, even I make mistakes sometimes. When I reviewed the first Footballer Of The Year a couple of years ago, I was none too impressed - although that didn't stop me playing it for an entire day in the office "for research reasons". In the end, of course, the game sold trillions, second only in fact to the evergreen Football Manager, Not surprisingly then, Gremlin has gone for another shot at goal, and, I can tell you, it's a 30-yard screamer and no mistake.

The main problems with the first FOTY were trivial, and therefore important. For instance, it's unlikely that any team who won only 10 games and lost 24 would be in the top six of their division, but mine was, twice. That's the sort of anomaly that really gets up your nose when you're playing a strategy game of this sort, and indeed eventually stops you playing a strategy game of this sort Cup games too were a little dodgy - Fourth Division teams regularly beat First Division teams and often went on to win the cup itself. FOTY2 dispenses with these niggles. The game is much the same - you're heading for fame and fortune as Footballer Of The Year, and as you're a striker it's the goals you score that matter. You still play Goal Cards to help you score these goals, but here things are a mite different. Before you just had to knock the ball past the goalie, which after a couple of hours was un morceau de gateau. This time you're given a choice of which card you want to play, and for each (lettered from A to T) there's a set-piece which your clever manager has worked out. You see the moves on a blackboard, you remember it, and if you stand in the right place at the right time you score a goal.

Naturally enough, this is not as easy as it initially seems. If you choose to play two or three cards in a game, you can have problems recalling them in any detail - especially as you have to react so quickly. And sometimes you do need to play more than one card at a time - sometimes you'll be told that if you score a certain number of goals in the next game, you'll be picked or your country. Only a real clot would turn such a chance down.

Incident cards have also gone by the board. There are still incidents, but not as many, and now if you want to gamble some money you must do it by answering trivia questions on the Double Or Nothing screen. These vary between the dead easy and the completely unguessable, but can provide a useful income if you get the hang of them. (There's also no limit on how many times you choose to play this section between games.) You're paid for appearances and goals, and your aim is to be transferred to a bigger and better club, which'll give you the opportunities you desire to win league and cup medals and possibly even a place in the World Cup team.

You see, internationals are another innovation in FOTY2. Overall, the new game is an enormous improvement - the successful parts of the original (such as the icon-driven control system) have been retained, while the dodgy bits have been polished up. Having started playing it, I found it hard to stop, and this review has, as a consequence, taken an awful long time to write. So far I have been capped by England three times, but my failure to score in their World Cup semi-final meant that I was dropped for the final (sassen frassen rassen). I've recently been transferred from Chelsea to Norwich, and seen the team's form plummet as a consequence. But if I haven't got the hang of it (and this is only on the lowest of nine skill levels), you can be sure that I will. Well, I hope so...

REPLAY

Out goes Barg B, and in comes something nearly exactly the same (but covering the rereleases). PILLAR AND PELLEY remain your hosts.

Gremlin
£3.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

The year being 1990 of course, the year when more football games were released than I had hot dinners (I made it 20). The year, also, that you strove to become footballer of the, um, year by scoring enough goals, earning enough money, becoming an off-screen personality, hopefully being picked for the World Cup and on the whole being more of a good egg than anyone else. And now you can do it all again (at a third of the price).

I gave a little whine of joy when I found out that, instead of the boring old Footie Manager-style long listings and text that I assumed would be the order of the day, all gameplay was via a rather stylish icon-driven system. And it was pretty original gameplay too. Spooky for a footy game or what?

There's a saying that goes "Money can't buy everything", which a bit of a crap saying actually because I've yet to find a shop which sells something that you can't buy, and in Footie Of The Year 2 there's certainly nothing you can't buy if you've got enough of the green stuff. You see, the whole of this game revolves around dosh. Goals are awarded by buying a chance to score and then successfully completing a little arcade sequence. Transfers can be arranged by waving a little bit of cash around, and a few readies can be earned by gambling any time you desire in a rather nice multiple-guess trivia subgame. In fact, there's far more to this game than I've got room/can be bothered to tell you about (check out issue 50, page 16 if you want a full review). However, I will mention that this is an extremely playable and well thought-out game, with a lot of depth and the added bonus of actually looking quite nice. Then I'll award it 88' and take a long, well deserved rest after all my hard work this month. Bye.

THE COMPLETE AND UTTER YS GUIDE TO SOCCER ON THE SPECCY

Footie games, eh? Where'd we be without 'em? There've been hundreds of the blooming things, with more on the way each month, and they always (always! always!) sell like hot cakes (even the ones that are crap). So with the World Cup lining itself up on the horizon, let's join the slightly less-than-enthusiastic JONATHAN DAVIES, as we lead you by the hand into the past, present and future world of the Spectrum soccer game.

Oh dear. How can I start? Um, quite a few phrases spring to mind. Like "They're all the same!" and "No, please, not another one!" and, erm, "Let me out of here!" The problem, you see, is that for every MicroProse Soccer or Matchday 2 there are six or seven World Cup Carnivals (US Gold's tragic 1986 attempt at a footie sim) to wade through. And I should know - I've just waded through them all. Quite frankly I wouldn't care if the colour green never darkened my Speccy again. I'm sick as a parrot. So let's just forget all about them, eh?

What? No. You like them? Cripes. (Better get going on this giant mega-feature thingie then, hadn't you? Ed) Er, yes. Right. Football.

Well, there are certainly lots of games. And no, they're not all the same. There are in fact a few basic types, and within each of these categories dwell a hundred and one subtle variations. Um, what fun...

IT'S A GAME OF TWO HALVES

That's right, one half management, the other half actually booting the ball around a bit. To kick off with we have the straightforward arcade simulation. This you should all be familiar with - a big green pitch (seen from above, or sometimes from the side), the roar of the crowd (well, the 'beep' of the crowd), lots of little men running around kicking the ball, and you up in the air somewhere above it all, doing your best to keep one or two of them (plus the ball) under control. What you don't have to worry about though is what any of the blokes are called, how much they're worth, or any other boring managerial-type stuff. Good examples of this kind of game are Matchday 2 and Kick Off.

The second main sub-division, the management game, is a totally different kettle of fish. No footie here at all (as such), apart from the results of various games flashing up on your screen every so often to tell you how you're doing. It's business acumen we're worried about here, with all sorts of weird and wonderful information popping up to confuse you - what your men are called, how tall they are, how skilful they can be and all sorts. A good example of this variety of game is, surprise, surprise, Football Manager.

The third, and crappiest, type of footie game is the pools prediction program. Now you may get really excited by the prospect of these (I don't know) but I find them so brain-blendingly boring that this is the only mention they'll get here, so enjoy it while you can. (Sorry and all that.)

Actually there's a fourth subdivision I've just remembered too - those games that provide you with an often quite bizarre mixture of action game and management, usually consisting of lots of lists of numbers with slightly dodgy bolt-on arcade bits thrown in. Some of them work quite well, but there's always the odd game that's simply too weird for words - like Roy Of The Rovers for example, part arcade adventure of all things and with a badly drawn Roy searching for his kidnapped team!

One of Dr Marcus Berkmann's favourite games (and he should know - he's reviewed about 80% of the damn things ever covered by YS!). A bizarre set-up, half strategy/half arcade game, this second shot at goal from Gremlin dispensed with most of the annoying niggles of the first game (like fourth division teams regularly beating first division ones in the quest for the cup) and added such diversions as international games and nine skill levels to keep your interest going.

So how does it actually work? Well, you play an individual footballer on a quest to gain the coveted 'Footballer Of The Year' accolade, and since you're a striker it's the goals you score that count. In both versions of the game you play Goal Cards to help you score, which then take you into mini arcade sequences - fairly simple in the first game, but the second involves set plays and things which you've got to remember almost American-football style in order to succeed. What's more, it even includes a footie trivia section, with correct answers adding dosh to your coffers. It all sounds very strange, and takes some getting used to, but once you do get the hang of it it's as addictive as anything. Just ask the good doctor…

Label: Gremlin
Author: In-house
Price: £8.95
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

You'll either be over the parrot or as sick as the moon to hear that yet ANOTHER football management game has been released, or should that read 'has escaped'.

My opinion on football games has been recorded often enough; even if I was a mad keen footy fanatic, which I'm not. I wouldn't want to see another soccer management game as long as I live. How many more variations can there possibly be on the "choose team, buy player, play match, sell player" theme?

So you can imagine the enthusiasm with which I approached Footballer of the Year II - not only a soccer management game, but a SEQUEL to a football management game.

At first it's not altogether obvious that this is a new game at all. The aim's the same: you're playing for your own glory, scoring as many goals as possible to make yourself an attractive transfer prospect for teams higher up the league table. Move from one team to another, from one match to the next, until you're voted Player of the Year. The opening icon-driven menu is certainly familiar; the globe representing your team's league and international records, the player's head for your own performance, the tape save load icon, and the match-play boot. Two new options are the transfer page and the trivia option.

The trivia quiz allows you to boost your funds by gambling money on answering multiplechoice footy questions, within a time limit which depends on the difficulty level you choose. If you get the first one right you see a hypothetical football (that's like a real football, but flatter) zoom into a hypothetical net (more holes) and then you can choose double or quits. And why do you need all this money? It's not to get your hair permed or to open a boutique, no, it's to buy goals. HUH? I knew the football league was fixed, but I didn't realise it went this far.

Each time you opt to play a match, to score a goal you must buy a "goal card", the cost of which depends on the level of the match. Even then you're not guaranteed to score; if you choose to play a goal card during a match, you see a blackboard drawing of the tactics chosen for that goal. You have to remember the position of the goalscorer, and use the keyboard or joystick to position him correctly in the action replay if you hope to see the leather slam into the back of the net. The top-down graphics here are minimal, and the whole business seems like a bit of a palaver. It hardly draws on all your hard-won footy skills and split-second timing: it's more a matter of whether you can remember the patterns. In any case, you aren't allowed to score more than three goals per match. Try telling that to Roy of the Rovers!!!

My idea of a football game is lots of little men running around a pitch kicking some pixels about. My idea of a football management game is the same thing, only you get to choose the players first. My idea of Footballer of the Year 2 is that you shouldn't bother with it, unless you're so addled by soccer mania that you'll buy anything with the word Football in the title.

GARTH SEZ: 75%
"A limited improvement on a skill oldie, but a logical progression for any FOTY fanatics.".

Label: Gremlin
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £11.53 Tape, £14.99 Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen

When Footballer Of The Year 2 dropped through the letter box groans of depression swept through the office like an Intercity 125 out of Hell (or maybe Doncaster). Even the doormat raised its bristles for an exasperated sigh of disbelief. Another computer footy game? I'd rather watch repeats of Highway! So wearily I plugged it in, praying for something different and to my surprise it was.

It takes many qualities to be named footballer of the year so, be prepared, that's what your out to achieve here in a quest for cash and mastery of the football world. Not only do you have to win the matches, but you have to finance your progression too. After all footballers today have to know almost as much about investments as they do about selling a dummy on the pitch.

The football game element takes a noticeable back seat and is only represented in the form of free kick type set pieces shooting for goal whilst most of the time you juggle your cash. Funds are raised by embarking on a Give Us A Break type quiz game. You can bet anything up to 500 pounds on answering the footy-orientated questions correctly. If you succeed you have the opportunity to double your cash up to four times, but if you fail it's on the cards that you'll have less dosh than Tottenham Hotspur!

Eventually acquiring the readies, you can either spend them on a Transfer Card to buy one of those lucrative star players or Goal Cards which have to be purchased for you to get a taste of putting the leather in the net. All rests on you scoring goals. Every now and again the game will be interrupted with a message telling you of the tally you have to reach and your reward if the total is achieved. A two-goal win might get you selected to play for England or advance you to one of the five league and Super World Cup tables. This is where the Goal Cards come in as they are used to select up to three set pieces at random from a directory.

Every set piece is shown to you on a blackboard and the formation and path of your players indicated by white lines. You have to follow these in order to hopefully intercept the ball and send it home.

Statistics are monitored at all times as well as your placing in the endless tables you find yourself flicking carelessly through. In fact the whole thing is pretty uninspiring. It's almost impossible to remember your player formations when tying to score more than one goal and the graphics, considering the style of the game, are appalling. I can appreciate what has been attempted here, but it's all so tedious. Only the small quiz section held any interest for me and there are much better quizzes dedicated to that type of gaming. One I would wart to avoid.

GARTH:
Oh dear, there really is a problem with footy games on the Speccy and this game actually strengthens the argument. Although not a bad attempt, it's not worth shelling out for.