Zzap


Gary Lineker's Super Skills
By Gremlin
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Zzap #45

Gary Lineker's Super Skills

If you were to meet Gary Lineker in the local corner shop and ask him what the secret of his success was, what would he say? 'Talent'? 'A diet of snails in garlic butter'? Or maybe just Mind your own business, couch potato'. We don't really know but high on our list of possibilities has to be a strict regime of gym training and ball control exercises.

Well, now *you* can help Gaz limber up in his private gymnasium. You know the sort of thing: press-ups, squat thrusts, weight lifting and monkey bar swinging. There's a time limit on each exercise - you could end up starting from the beginning again. Rotten bleeder!

Oh yeah and there's always ball-juggling, dribbling, shooting practice as well. Nice one Cyril.

ME

Gary Lineker's Superskills

This instalment in the trilogy looks and sounds reasonable, but after pulping my wrist and a joystick I hadn't really achieved anything.

The only fun is gained from repeatedly trying to beat the clock which isn't half as enjoyable as training for something then taking part in it, as in, say Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge.

The multiple player option boosts the enjoyment, but there are much more interesting things for a crowd of people to be doing - playing football in the park for example. And that costs less than £10.

PG

Gary Lineker's Superskills

If this trend for joystick-pounding sports games continues, I soon won't be able to recognise my own wrists. The gym training reminds me of Ocean's Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge, but with a bit more variation in the waggling, some of which just depends on timing.

But whereas in Daley Thompson, the results of your training had an effect on your success in the track and field events, Superskills is just training. All the effort you expend on mashing the joystick doesn't go towards winning a competition and so the whole exercise is pointless.

What's there is well done, but there really ought to be more.

Verdict

Presentation 68%
Multiple player options and three skill levels, but they don't add a lot to the game.

Graphics 70%
Tidy and reasonably well-animated sprites, but nothing eye-catching.

Sound 66%
No effects, just a bouncy Ben Daglish soundtrack running throughout.

Hookability 67%
Interesting at first, but action soon becomes repetitive and boring.

Lastability 56%
There's no climax to the training so the only reason to keep playing is to build up a score.

Overall 59%
£10 is a lot to pay for an unremarkable sports game.