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Kick Off was the game of 1989, winner of all the top awards for sports sims and undoubtedly the best football game of all time. It became an industry standard, the yardstick that all other soccer sims were measured against, and as software houses caught World Cup fever this summer and hordes of mediocre football sims were released, its status as the ultimate soccer conversion was confirmed again and again. Well football, as they say, is a game of two halves and the new, improved, ever-so-bouncy Kick Off 2 has arrived on the ST.

The scope of gameplay options before you even get on the field is breaktaking, with different playing surfaces, wind conditions, skill levels, speeds and tactical formations. You can play cup, league or international football, practise on your own, design your own hit, load your own team from Player Manager and even choose your own referee!

Once you've done the pre-game tactical planning and selected your team according to each individual's pace, stamina and aggression, it's time to get out on the pitch and show your mettle. (Ron Atkinson lovers can feel free to mouth platitudes at the monitor for hours under the delusion they are still having some effect on the play.)

Up to four players can play at a single time and you can take on the clockwork precision of the computer or the rough 'n tumble, kick 'n rush style of your friends. You can control a single player or whichever player is closest to the ball, though the latter is much more involving and lets you dominate the speed, style and tactics of your team with more precision.

The teams run out on the field together, separate into their respective halves, line themselves up in formation and kick off!

The action is just out of this world. Using the joystick and fire button you can make players trap, pass, shoot and head the ball and time inch-perfect sliding tackles. You can chip the ball, bend it round the wall using After Touch, and rely on the rest of your team to run into intelligent positions off the ball. Options on corners and free kicks give you total freedom in dead ball positions, while a quick throw-in is always a good tactical plot to catch a defence off guard.

The goalkeepers, controlled by the computer are top-notch ball handlers - even the Scottish ones! It takes a hell of a lot more ingenuity to beat a keeper in Kick Off 2 than it did in the original.

The keeper is king of the six yard box effortlessly snapping up any loose balls or crosses. Long shots need wicked After Touch to curl them beyond the reach of his outstretched arms. The best ploys are to attack the goal diagonally, follow-up for any rebounds or dribble into the area to draw the keeper out of position and fire the ball across the face of the goal for a Lineker-like nudge in. Such smooth linking of players in a goalmouth frenzy obviously takes a calm head and some nifty joystick action, but when you've done it once and seen your goal scorer run the length of the pitch doing somersaults you won't be able to stop yourself going back for more.

Kick Off 2's faultless multi-directional scrolling and realistically scaled players make it a gem to play. The players run smoothly, jump for headers, limp off dejectedly when injured and somersault like crazy when they score. Sliding tackles are so smooth you just know that no-one's going to have grazed knees in the dressing room. And as an added bonus, an action replay facility means you can watch all those moments of glory again and again.

The crowd roars encouragingly as the teams come onto the pitch, and bays for blood at the first sign of a nasty challenge. A piercing whistle controls play and a satisfying thud signifies the meeting of boot and ball.

What a game! The best football sim just got a whole lot better. Purists won't be able to get enough of the one-touch, choreographed, passing that can split defences in half. Cynics will revel in extra-curricula delights such as professional fouls, time wasting on goal kicks and debilitating opposing teams by constant heavy tackling.

Unless programmer Dino Dini included national anthems, shirt pulling, and Saint 'n Greavsie, it's hard to imageine how this magical game could be any more authentic.