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Manchester United - Ha! What's wrong with an Aston Villa licence? The only good thing you can say about Man U is that they lost the league championship this season (fancy getting beaten by Leeds!). Resisting the temptation to rubbish the game on its licence, let's slap it in...

Manchester United is a game of two halves, so to speak, mixing management and arcade elements within the same game. A brave attempt, but ruined by the fact that neither of the elements are really up to much. Thankfully the management bit is multi-loaded inbetween matches, avoiding loss of depth, but lousy execution makes the game as a whole extremely Fourth Division.

The arcade section is hideous, featuring computer-controlled players running around like headless chickens and never attempting a tackle. As soon as you get the ball, you just run at goal, the opposition making no attempt to stop you! When you invade the penalty area and make that all-important shot you'll wonder why you bothered - the goalkeepers are so irritatingly agile it's almost impossible for either team to score! If Man United's real keeper was half as good they'd have walked the league.

After the inevitable nil-nil drawn it's back to the management section for some between-match spit and polish. Although not my cup of tea, I must admit Manchester United is a whole new ball game. Icon-driven (hurrah!), it features all the usual bits and bobs, such as transfers, injuries, training and team selection. Released on its own, it could've been a winner, but a dodgy arcade section that feeds in dud results makes the game unplayable - what's the point in managing a team that gets a goalless draw every week, whatever you do?

A management/arcade hybrid such as this could only really work if both sections are of a reasonably high standard. Though the management section is championship material, the arcade game is amateur league only. A brave attempt, but spoiled by poor execution. Even at budget price, the 65% it scored in Issue 67 seems excessively generous.