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Not only do you get to play football here, but you also get to manage your team. Perfect if you enjoy snatching the glory from others on pain of being sacked. The idea is to set up your side so it can't possibly lose, then go in and score all the goals yourself.

Most of the usual management options are here; you can buy and sell players, train them, swap them, set up your position - anything you like, really. Then when you're happy (or bored with doing all this) you can go and have a match. Sensible Soccer it isn't. The graphics are big and there's a lot going on, but as far as controlling a player goes, well, you're limited to clicking with the mouse when an indicator points towards the goal. This does make a difference to the run of play, but it isn't very satisfying and there isn't a vast amount of skill involved. Leaving aside the "arcade sequences" the management bits are pretty good. You use the mouse, clicking on icons and highlighting things you want done. It runs quickly and any mouse-related cock-ups you might make are easily rectified.

One apparently unique feature is the ability to get your scouts to search for people of particular skill elvels. By simply typing the skill rating of the person you feel is missing from your side, you can get all the available players with that skill rating listed.

There is a disk option too, so you can save and load to your heart's content. It's a small point, but you still see management games occasionally which don't have this option.

Striker Manager is a bit of a misnomer; you don't get an awful lot of control over your boy on the field, but for the first few matches it's worth using the option before turning it off and concentrating solely on the management side which is competent and as good as anyone else's. The only thing wrong with this game is that it's far too expensive and comes in an unnecessarily big box.