Producer: Grand Slam
Retail Price: £6.95
Author: Icon Design

During the World Cup finals, Diego Maradona allegedly used his hands when scoring a goal in a crucial match against England (an incident which resulted in England being knocked out of the Cup). ICON DESIGN have written a slightly tongue-in-cheek program based on this memorable incident.

Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona puts the player in goal for a change. Playing for a team of your choice you must stop the opposition from scoring. The screen shows half of a football pitch looking towards the home team's goal. The opposing team position themselves and shoot from random angles. Using the joystick or keyboard, the player move the goalie so he saves the shot. If a shot is stopped from going into the net the scoreboard (to one side of the goal mouth) displays 'Save', otherwise it announces 'Goal'.

The goalkeeper has a variety of moves he can make in order to save shots. These include the standard left, right, up and down, as well as some more complicated manoeuvres, such as diving upwards, up left, up right, centre left, centre right, down right and down left. By using these moves to their full potential it is theoretically possible to save anything the opposition cares to kick at you.

The game provides 16 skill level and three modes of play. The practice session allows goalie-control to be perfected before the real hard work begins. In the basic game, which may be played against the computer or another human, each side gets four shots at goal, and your opponent's shooting prowess is related to the skill level he has attained. Your skill level is allocated by the computer according to a code, and entering the skill-building mode allows the skill code to be upgraded - if you're good enough. Four shots have to be saved before moving up a skill level, whereupon a new code is provided.

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable - up, down, left, right, dive
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Use of colour: unimaginative
Graphics: small and undetailed
Sound: a few spot effects; no tunes
Skill levels: 16
Screens: a few variations on the goalmouth

Goalkeeping simulations don't really rate that highly in my list of ideal computer games; there have been a few and none of them have made the grade. This continues that trend. The gameplay in Handball Maradona is non-existent. Graphically there isn't anything here which is remotely interesting - a horrid green pitch and some 'orrible white characters doing some kind of Irish jig (not a dig at Ciaran - honest). The sound is a complete cop out, with about three effects and no tune. I wouldn't buy this, I'd rather spend the money seeing Hereford United thrashing Ludlow Rangers!
BEN

This game must have one of the tackiest titles ever. After all the game has nothing at all to do with the World Cup 86 - in fact the game has little to do with anything, least of all football! Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona is good if you like lots of flashy presentation and options, but there's no game to speak about. The graphics give a poor impression of perspective, so it is hard to judge when to attempt your save. As far as content goes, the game is little more than a repetition of the same old moves, over and over again. Graphics are the basic monochromatic type and the screen display is very sparse, containing just two ad boards. This is nothing like real goalkeeping, so it doesn't really achieve anything.
PAUL

To be honest there is not much to this game. Alright, there's a practice mode, and the, skill development facility, but it's still the same boring game. Running around after a football never appealed to me at school, and I don't like watching football - except for World Cup games. Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona is very boring, holding interest for no more than a few minutes. The graphics are passable, but the men don't seem to follow any set patterns. It just doesn't appeal to me and it isn't a game I would recommend.
MIKE

Grandslam Entertainments
£6.95

Gordon Bennett, another football simulation! England goalkeeper Peter Shilton is the name behind this one and not surprisingly it's all about goalkeeping.

First you have the opportunity to hone your skillsin a lengthy practice session against an interesting variety of attacks. Then you can try your luck in a real game, perhaps something as exciting as Wigan Athletic vs Crewe Alexandra. Finally, when you've started saving even the wriggliest banana shots with relative ease, you can upgrade your skills and continue at a higher level.

Trouble is, that's it. There's no more to the game. You just carry on saving shots (or in my letting 'em in) all the way up through 16 skill levels. The games you play don't seem to mean anything very much - there's no League or Cup competition, just a succession of what seem to be 'friendlies'.

But its not a total disaster. The graphics are quite jolly, and the attacks on goal (watch out for snipers) vary much more than you'd expect. And on higher levels the opposing forwards get much faster and more skilful, even if they do still play for Crewe Alexandra. Nevertheless, Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona (for some reason, the title has nothing whatsoever to do with the game) compares poorly with the hundreds of other football simulations out at the moment. Though the idea is nice, and the execution presumably faithful to Shilton's instructions, the gameplay is just not gripping enough to prevent the attention wandering and the hand moving closer to the reset button. All you do is develop a (fairly pointless) skill without any opportunity to use it. And unless that turns you on, the game probably won't.

There's enough soccer action on this page to keep John Motson in cliches for a month.

Whether you end up over lunar objects or as unwell as an exotic species of avian depends on which game you support this new year.

There's something for goalkeepers, award-hungry strikers or those old fashioned play-anywhere utility players.

But even if you love footie, remember, the spectre of World Cup Carnival still haunts the terraces.

HANDBALL MARADONA
Label: Grandslam
Price: £8.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Terry Pratt

It's like this boss... they achieved mid-field dominance, culminating in a crescendo of attacks and a goal-riot I was powerless to prevent.

Or in footballing parlance: 'We wuz stuffed.'

The impression I took away from Peter Shilton's Handball Maradonna was that Argus had a game idea waiting for a suitable controversy to give it life - whether we should consequently be happy that England had such a contentious exist from the '86 World Cup is doubtful.

Goalkeeper is not the most glamorous position on a football pitch and the game suffers from the inevitable fact that the action happens to you rather than around you.

Having accepted, then, that better games subjects have been chosen, it is only fair to add that Handball Maradonna is still a worthy attempt at appreciating soccer from the 'keeper's point of view.

You control the keeper bouncing on his goal-line as action unfolds before him. Without fail the defence contrive to present the opposing forwards with scoring opportunities - and these guys (Ian Rush's to a man) are always on target.

You can move left and right, come forward to narrow the angle, jump to save or dive in one of six directions: high-left, low-left, centre-left and vice versa.

Be in the right position and correctly read the shot and you save it. Miss and the scoreboard bleeps up, 'goal'.

The animation of the white figure on green is fine (if slowish) but there's no getting away from the fact that you perform one act in every 20 seconds.

What earns this game its stars (three is uncommonly high from this reviewer - Ed) is that the build-ups are well animated, entertaining and above-all, realistic.

Pin-point headers from corners, viscously curving free- kicks, deadly penalties and dipping volleys rain in as the defence makes itself absent and relies on you (Shilts) to do your stuff.

You pick a team, practice, play games, try and improve your skill rating and it all takes place with the same white-shirted Linekers thumping the ball in.

It is almost addictive and definitely satisfying when you pluck one out from under the crossbar, but loses points for being impossibly difficult to pick up the flight of the ball. Forget positioning and narrowing angles, just react when you are sure of the direction of the shot.

And remember boss, you don't need a new 'keeper - spend £200,00 on the defence.

Label: Bug Byte
Author: Icon
Price: £1.99
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

Hello. Do you know me? Whoops, sorry, wrong sportsman. The infamous Dingo Primadonna strikes again. In this - yet another BB re-release, you get to be him-of-the-holy-hands Peter Shilton. But wait. Before you get all over excited, there's more. You get to save five penalty shoots taken at you by assorted players, some of whom have some pretty astounding tactics. I didn't know for example you could curve a ball backwards through 270 degrees. The Diego disease perhaps? Another famous person tie-in to disappoint the unwary millions.