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Guide the ball into the net with the help of your eleven players. Defend against the opposite team.

The Smegtons had always been the poor relations of the Smarts. The Smegtons bought a lime green sofa with matching orange velour carpet for their sitting room. The Smarts had Chesterfields and snaded floors. The Smegtons drove a deep brown Vauxhall Viva; the Smarts had a Mondoe. And little Johnny Smegton had an Amiga - whereas his cousin had a Megadrive!

But young master Smart had cause to harrumph one day, when Johnny showed him Sensible Soccer, a rather clever football game from 1991, that had no peer on the Megadrive at that time. How would the Smarts heep up with the Smegtons? Simple, Sensible have converted their own game to the Sega 16-bit, so now there's a way to enjoy football and gracious living - at the same time!

The rules of Sensible are the rules of soccer. Eleven-a-side teams and an option to include foul infringements. There is no off-side rule. Throw-ins, goal kicks and corners are all taken with the minimum of fuss. The direction of these set pieces may be changed by moving the joypad.

Sensible have created a clutch of the strangest teams you'll ever encounter. Sources of inspiration for these custom teams comes from strange garments (Clothes City); Education (Bad Spellings); and food (In The Chippy). The team players all fit into the spirit, so if you play the Old Dear's Menu, you may find your star players being 'Nice buttered Roll' and 'Nice Glass of Milk'. The Edit menu allows you to create rib-tickling squads of your own.

Sensible Soccer is designed to make passing quite easy, especially on the beginner level. Players pass quite proficiently, and the computer players respond to a nearby ball. There is also no loss of speed when a player is in possession, making dribbling an integral part of the game (the ball 'sticks' to the players' feet). However, tackling is also easily achieved and often successful.

Before the game starts you view both your own, and the opposition squad, with their playing positions. This screen shows who is playing, what their best position is and star players are marked as such. Game strategy is also shown, with a variety of numbered formations, and more general tactics like Attack.

Should you wish to substitute during a game, press the joypad sideways twice when the ball is out of play. This brings the dugout on screen. Click on the manager to change tactics, or any of the players to bring someone on.

Sensible has aftertouch, a play feature giving more subtlety of control and added realism. Hold onto the button as you kick and it responds to the joypad after it is played. This is useful for bending the ball into the net. Holding the button also increases shot power.

There are three different divisions in Sensible Soccer, each with progressively more talented and demanding teams. The game set-up varies within each, depending on what kind of competition you desire.

There are three pre-arranged leagues: League of Nations, European Super League and Bobby League. These select teams from the National, club and custom respectively. By highlighing teams in blue, you can play as any number of the teams within the league.

You choose to play each other team either once or twice, and select two or three points for a win. You also select the month the league commences, which affects the weather and pitch conditions.

Cups are played as in two parts, as home and away legs. There are two cups for each division. The first is an open competition, where every team in the division has a throw at it (UEFA Cup, Egg Cup, Maastrict Cup). The second is a select competition (Cup Winner's Cup, World Cup Qualifiers). There are six different World Cup qualifiers' groups.

You have complete control to set up and save a cup competition of your own, within any division. Just choose the unlabelled cup or league option.

Highly playable it may be, but the problem with Sensible Soccer is that it's taken for too long to arrive on the Megadrive. What sould for £25.00 and the Amiga two and a half years ago looks decidedly dodgy with a £45.00 price tags, especially when for a few quid more you can buy the all-conquering FIFA Soccer.

Sensi looks sicks by comparison - its farty little sprites and hopeless sound are absolutely no match for FIFA's stunning, ultra-realistic audio and visuals. Fortunately, Sensi delivers in the gameplay department, and its ultra-fast arcade-style football action is still incredibly enjoyable and highly addictive.

But fab though it may be, FIFA offers that and far, far more - and that's what I'll be spending my wad on.

So here is is. Sensible has been a while coming, and arrives just as FIFA Soccer brings new standards of presentation to the game. No-one could deny that this looks a sorry effort.

Despite the excellent surround to the game, with its sharp menus and well thought out competition structure, Sensible looks like a dog-in game. That's not to say it plays that way.

It's just as great as the Amiga version was, and still offers a mean game of soccer. Its best attributes are speed, and the good feel created by lenient passing and unfussy tackling. Those looking to make a choice should look at Sensi and FIFA as two different types of game.

FIFA is trying to capture the atmosphere of televised soccer, whereas Sensible Soccer is an unashamedly playable video game, that sacrifices atmosphere for action. This is probably more the game for purists, who wont be put [some test missing].

Presentation 83%
P. The wealth of cups, teams and options enhances the lasting appeal of this game.
N. The game lacks quite a bit of the football match atmosphere.

Graphics 43%
P. The graphics are crisp, and the scrolling is very smooth.
N. The game looks too simplistic - figures and tiny and hardly animated. Some of the pitch colours are horrible.

Sound 65%
P. The whistles, ball noises and music are pretty good.
N. The crowd sounds so artificial that's its barely worth adding for effect.

Playability 85%
P. Super speedy and unfussy gameplay. Very easy to get a feel of the control method. Nice passing play.
N. In the game, some sports provide easy scoring grounds.

Lastability 86%
P. As you have total freedom to create your own football kingdom, you'll be at it for months. Sensible is not an easy game to master.

Overall 85%
Doesn't have the four player mode or the glamour of FIFA, but Sensible Soccer is recommended to those with a real interest in the game.