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Crunch! I just got a face full of five - as the Mean Machine would say. And it hurt! Yes, I've been playing GFL Championship Football - the latest sports sim to have a crack at bringing the action of American Football to the small screen.

And it's a pretty good try. This time you're actually in the thick of the action of the field instead of simply masterminding the moves as in the previous Ocean and Nexus football games.

You find yourself head-to-head with the helmeted man mountains as you attempt to move the ball down the gridiron.

You can run with the ball or attempt to catch a blistering throw from your quarterback - which ain't easy. And that gives this particular computer version of American football a touch of authenticity. You see your "hands" at the bottom of the screen - and if you've made all the right moves the leather will slip smoothly into your waiting mitts!

The graphics are very effective - the figures are big and smoothly animated. And there's some gimmicky speech simulation when the quarterback shouts out the "play".

The major drawback of the game is the complexity of the menu-driven action. Although you control the ball carrier/receiver on the field, you still have to follow - very accurately - the instruction for each "play" you choose. Otherwise you end up getting nowhere fast.

Each play requires you to take a certain number of "steps" in certain directions - indicated at the bottom of the screen by arrow icons and explained at length in the instructions.

You can pick the game up and play if you want - but you could end up being ultimately frustrated, unless you're an American Football expert already.

On the tape version there's a long and boring set-up section during which you choose the teams you want to play each others or if you want a one or two player game. Once you've decided, you have to wait again as the main game loads in.

You can select how long you want the game to last as well - my advice is to go for short quarters to start with.

Then it's time to ram your helmet over your ears and prepare to get battered. The screen swaps from the playing field screen where all the action takes place to the menu screen where you choose your next play and see how the opposition defeated your last match winning move.

Score a touchdown and the crowd cheers - but there aren't any cute cheerleaders jumping up and down to spur your team on to further glory.

At the end of the game you see a scoreboard - that's it. No victory match or any other celebration. A bit disappointing, this.

And the instructions say you can set up again by simply hitting the RESTORE key which will restart the game. Not on my copy it didn't - and I was sorely tempted not to bother to reload it!

GFL Championship Football is a nice try which doesn't quite come off - it lacks the essential action ingredient vital for this sort of game. So far, none of the US Football Games have managed to capture the real spirit of the game - like the 10-Yard Fight coin-op did for instance.