It was Plato who first pointed out the difference between concept and reality and that the latter always falls short of the former. If nothing else, this package shows all of the degrees of Plato's deliberations.

The concept of a package which combines a strategy-action game with a database-quiz and a complementary booklet is excellent. The realisation in this form falls sadly short of the ideal.

The booklet is the best part, covering skills and rules of the game and then going on to mention some details of the greats of the World Cup Competition since its instignation in 1930.

The database gives the kind of facts and figures which can be obtained from any book on World Cup Football and does not allow for the user to interrogate the files as fully as I would like. The results of all the matches since 1930 are all here and the performance of each item throughout the years is all here, but surely a computer can do more than merely present facts in the same way as a book...?

The quiz associated with this section gives multiple choice answers. It boasts three levels of difficulty but the questions do not get any harder. Instead, the time permitted to answer the questions is reduced. A better method would be to allot bonus points according to the time taken.

For my money, the World Cup Manager on the other side of the tape is a total fiasco. After selecting your team, you enter the qualifying rounds of the World Cup and in theory your skillful management ability must be brought to beat in winning the trophy for the nation you represent.

The aim is a noble one but it misses its mark by a hideously boring gameplay section. The first half of each match consists of approximately 45 seconds watching a screen display which occasionally tells you that a goal has been scored or a player has been injured or booked. Just in case this has put you to sleep, the second half allows you to influence the score by indulging in a mixture of two mindless games.

Visually, the least boring of the two invites you to head a ball in past the opposing team's goalkeeper. The ball flies in from the left of the screen, and you move your player from the right to intercept the ball and head it towards goal. After a little practice, this becomes relatively easy.

The second game is like a variation of brickout in which the bottom edge of the screen is your goal and a smaller goal runs to and fro along the top of the screen. An outsized boot can be moved along the bottom edge and with it you can bounce a ball around the screen until it hits the small goal. The ball appears moving in one of two fixed directions and after about five minutes practice I found that I could score almost every time on the first rebound from the boot. On the odd occasion when I failed, it was not too difficult to keep the ball out of my goal until I got a second chance to score.

There is one more action screen for penalties in which you nominate which way the ball will go, giving a 50:50 chance of success.

Judging by the graphics, the programmer is capable of better things but as it stands the package falls a long way short of the excellence which the Commodore 64 market demands.