A kick inside

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Once upon a time there was Match Day on the BBC B. Various attempts have been made to produce similar games since then and Indoor Soccer from Alternative Software is the latest. It is limited by not having a one-player option so you will need to find afriend to play against.

To simplify the rules this version is reduced to soccer six - the indoor variety of football - with surrounding walls to keep the ball in play. Your controls are the standard left, right, up down and kick. As is usual in this type of game, you control only the man nearest to the ball, the rest being operated by the micro. The controlled footballer is highlighted with a different colour.

For once - and this is unusual - the controls all seem to work. Even the speed is acceptable and does not give the feel of footballers playing on atreacle field, Against this must be set the almost intolerable flicker. Ten minutes of it would probably give most people a blinding headache. Fortunately one of the options is to set the length of the game.

The sound can be turned on or off, the control keys can be altered and the inappropriate default names can be changed to something more suited to a kid's game. There are some nice touches in the graphics too - the side wall of the football pitch carries adverts and messages.

The instructions on the cassette inlay are basically untruthful in any of the three languages. There is no oneplayer option, different skill levels are not obtainable, I'm glad to say that fighting does not break out between players and there is no need for penalties - that's just as well, as they don't exist. Alternative must do something about these totally misleading statements,

Despite these criticisms, the game is still fun - in small doses - and if you have access to a second player, you can't go far wrong with this at just £1.99.

Rog Frost