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For all you football fanatics, World Cup by Artic Software the game that you have waited for and no doubt had many sleepless nights, hoping that it would appear soon.

The game is for up to nine players and is a simulation of real soccer. Having selected the number of players and the desired teams out of a choice of 40, the action begins with either a practice mode or the full league.

As the players run onto the pitch, the cheering crowd are serenaded with various tunes - Match Of The Day, I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles, When The Saints, Nice One Cyril (but only after a goal), which also play through the game. I was grateful for the sound off key as Spectrum sound can sometimes get a bit grating.

The game starts with player one kicking off, which is taken automatically, as are the goalie movements and throw-ins. If you play against the computer, be warned as it plays a good game and is very hard to beat.

Unfortunately, you do not have control of all your men on the pitch, only the man nearest the ball. This seems to be a great disadvantage at first, but the computer is generally quite good in controlling the rest of your side, so it is not too much of a problem.

Unfortunately, also there is no key-select option, which would have been welcomed as I found the keys slightly uncomfortable to use. 1 for up, Q down, S right and A left with the bottom row for shooting. You are allowed to use either the Sinclair or Kempston joystick, which would be of great advantage as quicker action and movement will improve your game.

I found that both goalies were a little thick, in that they just felt "Let's get rid of the ball and kick it over the line" instead of passing to a specific player (Remind you of a few teams? I could name a few!).

The speed of my players was not always as fast as they could have been. My footballer moved faster running at a diagonal than in a straight line. In spite of this, I thoroughly enjoyed all the games in the league and although the computer won and got his hands (hands?) on the Cup at the end of it all, my wife was knocked out in the first round (At least I got her to play at all!)

I did find a little bug: where the player had just been after a throw-in, there was a gap on the line, which was refreshed quite soon afterwards. I would have thought that, by the time the final version arrives in the shops this error will not occur.

Another polished game from Artic Software, who managed to sneak in a couple of adverts above the crowd for their range of software and, right at the end, that wonderful phrase "and many more". Well, keep 'em coming, as they can only get better...!