THE FIRST thing you'll notice about Super League is the price; £19.95 is steep for any game. This time it is a computer-moderated board game, and we suppose the price has something to do with all the bits of cardboard and money and dice.

What you do is manage a team, through a league season. The computer handles the league tables, random events, and fixes the gate money.

There are two stages. First you are shown the week's draw of matches on the computer. Teams travel from wherever they were last time around, and if a home team arrives at its own ground with a move in hand over its opponent, it gets to buy a player, which increases the points value of the team.

The second stage is the match. Again the dice are thrown and referred to a table which translates the score into points. After that, teams can play Match Cards - if they have them - to nobble the opposition.

It is a likeable game, not really very faithful to football and not really requiring a computer, most of whose functions could easily be carried out by the players. We tried hard to like it more, but there are some niggles. The instructions on the box lid are ambiguous in places, particularly regarding movement and in what order players should move.

Those flaws serve to irritate. For the price one expects everything to be done perfectly, and our rating reflects that. If you don't mind clarifying the rules yourself and have plenty of dough then you can get a lot of fun out of Super League. Perhaps that's why it was launched in Harrods.

Chris Bourne

Publisher: Paul Lamond Price: £19.95 Memory: 48K

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