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Krisalis have made a two-pronged attack on the soccer gaming market with this one, for contained within the packaging is a management game and an arcade game rolled into one.

The fusion of the two game styles is handled fairly well. The main option menu contains a 'play game' icon. Select it and you have to physically take part in each and every match played. De-select it and all you need to concentrate on is the management side. You can use this icon at the end of every season, giving you a chance to reconsider. The game is icon-driven to a large degree, the only exceptions being name changes for the players and so on. Unfortunately, it's not immediately obvious what the options are but a quick scan of the manual solves this.

On the management side you can choose from four different cup competitions: the European Cup, the European Cup Winners' Cup, The UEFA Cup and the European Super Cup. There is also a World Club Championship.

Once into a competition, a menu gives you the option of changing various aspects of your team to greater or lesser degree. The formation is one option while team line up (of goalies, defenders, attackers and so on) can also be changed.

Complementing these options are statistical screens aplenty. These display your current placing in cup tournaments and the individual status of each and every player, including a breakdown of individual skills.

If you're playing in management/arcade mode, the match variables which can be adjusted are match length, one or two player option, and whether the players are joystick or computer-controlled.

Your options are brilliantly implemented. The icon system couldn't possibly be easier to use. Having said that, as management games go, the gameplay is not nearly sophisticated enough.

Some all-powerful deity plays in goal for the opposition while yours has been lovingly hand-picked from the nearest vegetable patch. He almost never gets a grip on the ball during an attack and invariably throws it back to an opposing player. It also takes too long for the computer to acknowledge your players' proximity to the ball. By the time you have control of a player the opposing team has the advantage.

Because you have to try twice as hard to achieve half as much as the other team, there's no incentive to keep playing. On that basis, it can't be recommended.

1. In isolation, the management game is not nearly sophisticated enough.
2. The same applies to the arcade section.
3. You and your opponents are unevenly matched.
4. There's no scanner of the pitch - so you're never certain where all the players are.
5. Response is slow.

1. Including two soccer sim types gives added life to a tried-and-tested formula.
2. The icon system is fabby.
3. Good arcade graphics and slick management section.
4. Four different tournaments, each with a wealth of teams to play against.