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After putting four past mighty Aylesbury and getting off to a lightning start in the European Championships, it looked as if Liverpool ace Peter Beardsley could do no wrong.

It *looked* that way - until he lent his name to Grandslam International's Football title.

The first version to be finished, and the only one to be out in time to conincide with the final event in the European soccer calendar was the Atari ST version - and despite the amazing power of this leading 16-bit machine, the game is still as sick as a parrot.

So what's up with it? Quite simply lack of control over the players.

It really doesn't matter how amazingly powerful the computer is - if the software does not react responsively to the joystick, football games fail. From Spectrum soccer games right through to coin-op attempts like Kick And Run - without responsiveness, they are naff.

The graphics are excellent - which is all the more frustrating as you can't help thinking what might have been. They employ the cartoon animation technique with a black line around each player to add to the definition.

Other nice touches - like the commentators that appear in cameo screens every time a goal is scored are fun but again they fail to rescue what is basically an unplayable game.

If there is one thing that really gets me about soccer (apart from Walsall beating Bristol City 4-0 in the play-offs) its people singing "'Ere we go, 'Ere we go, 'Ere we go". Why don't they just go that's what I want to know.

Position Still Vacant: a decent footy game for 16-bit machines.