Striker

The Good
Very little. The 3D graphics routine is quite impressive, and there are lots of options on offer. The set-pieces were controlled using a movable dotted line, a great innovation may games built on.

The Bad
There's only one tournament on offer, which can't be customised in any way, and its difficulty almost entirely depends on the team you play as, which is pathetic compared even to MicroProse Soccer on the C64 4 years earlier.

There are virtually no sound effects, which completely robs the game of any atmosphere. The game runs slowly unless you turn off the pitch markings, which is ludicrous.

Passing the ball accurately is extremely awkward, and the scanner really gets in the way of the action. Running the ball is the only reasonable strategy, making the game one-dimensional and rapidly tedious. There are plenty of different formations, but these are largely irrelevant as a result.

The options screen is located on the formation page, for no apparent reason, making it all too easy to miss at first. You can choose most settings, but can't get the game to choose them at random, which is really needed for the wind and weather - as it stands, you can pick and choose too much.

The introductory music and title screen are laughably poor, and pressing fire once the loading has seemingly finished simply carries on loading with the music silenced - how shoddy. Also, the game uses such a weird loading system that the computer isn't fully reset by simply resetting the machine - it must be fully turned off for 10-15 seconds. You'll find this out pretty quickly, believe me.

The Bottom Line
A thoroughly dismal football game, with over-simplified and unsatisfying gameplay, along with any number of silly flaws. Later titles in the series were an improvement, but it's always been a distant runner behind FIFA/ISS/Sensible and the rest.