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No-one has yet managed to produce a piece of Spectrum software to rival Commodore's International Soccer cartridge, but here's Ocean's attempt at blistering 3D action with Match Day.

There is a bewildering array of options available, making you wonder how there's room left for the program itself, so let's deal with those first. It supports a Kempston joystick, and you can support any team you like by changing the eight available names. For keyboard control you can select your own keys, this being done by a lovely routine displaying the Spectrum keyboard on screen, and you can have each half of your chosen match lasting five, 15 or 45 minutes.

There are three skill levels, you can have a one-player or two-player game, or even an eight-player knock-out tournament (though if the result here is a draw then a winner is picked randomly). Finally, you can change the team's colours, as well as the background, by running through the Spectrum's palette. Short of an action replay and Jimmy Hill's pontifications, there's not much missing from this extensive list of options.

On the whole though, I'd rather have seen fewer options and better action.

The opening's a little tedious - do you really want to sit through the sight of all 22 players running out every time you start the game, to an inaccurate rendering of the Match of the Day theme?

In the top right-hand corner a clock ticks away, while across the back bob the heads of the crowd in the stand. Control is always with the player nearest the ball, this switching automatically as the ball moves about.

If you have 20/20 vision and a very quick eye you might be able to spot the player you're controlling as his socks change colour to match the rest of his outfit. However, by the time you've spotted the change of hue he's probably lost the ball anyway.

A great number of features are taken care of automatically, such as kick-offs, corners and goal-kicks.

If taking a throw-in, there is a good deal of control you can exercise over the player you've selected to make it (or the goal-kick, etc).

There are three strengths of shot or throw, and three directions to choose from.

The action is a little slow, the choices almost overwhelming, and while this probably just has the edge on Artic's World Cup, I can only end where I began: no-one has yet managed to produce a piece of Spectrum soccer software that is a serious rival to Commodore's International Soccer.