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Interest in American Football has grown steadily in this country since Channel 4 began televising it. Only the thrills of Brookside stopped it being the company's biggest audience puller. So when I sat down to watch the Super Bowl final in January with a few cans of Yorkshire and party pack of salt 'n vinegar crisps I was not alone.

At its peak, the Super Bowl had 6.3 million people propping their eyelids open. Like me many of them got bored watching a massacre and went to bed. Ocean's game though gives you the opportunity to replay the whole thing with the blessing of the NFL. So if you're good enough the Pats might stand a chance after all.

Don't worry if you don't understand the rules properly there's an audio tape that comes with the package explaining all about it. And don't go thinking for a moment that if you go and buy it you'll end up with something like the Ten Yard Fight coin-op that was in all the pubs a year or more ago. It's just not possible to have that many players on screen with the C64.

So the approach Ocean have taken is to go for a split effect on the screen and to concentrate your attention on the strategy that is so important in the real thing. Don't turn the page though, it's not like The Force or Iwo Jima, once you get used to the selections then it can be played quite quickly.

As I've said, the screen is split vertically in half. The left-hand side of the screen is devoted to the tactical decisions for the preliminary part of the game before you actually make a play.

Let's say we are playing a two player game and that I'm offence and you're defence. Right, you have the duff Commodore joystick and I'll use the Wico. Now once I have possession, I have three attempts to make ground. Using the joystick I'm going to select from the menus which pop up on the left.

The first decision I have to make is what kind of pass to attempt. The options range from long, short, rush and a special play (such as field goal). Selection of one of these takes me to a more detailed menu from which I choose the type of pass I have already selected. If that sounds confusing you must remember there is more than one kind of long or short pass.

If I selected the 'shotgun' pass - in which my quarterback runs in reverse to his own endzone and then throws a long 'bomb' pass - this is automatically indicated on the right hand side of the screen where the teams are displayed as small squares. Finally I choose who I want to be my receiver by shifting a cursor around the team. All this is done by joystick and takes very little time.

At this point, you get a chance to arrange your defence to try and stop me scoring (no chance). The first thing you have to do is choose a formation. Different formations are needed depending on where you are. You then go to a more detailed menu as I did before to select exactly which player is making which. It doesn't matter if you don't know what each number does because the players flash as you move down the numbers. Get plenty of men on my quarterback (number 10) because he's the business.

The last thing you have to do before I maul you is select a man to control. This is just as I did with my receiver. Place your cursor on a player - preferably one of thebacks - and get ready for the off. When I hit the fire button we go into the kind of explosive play you get in the real thing. Don't blink otherwise you'll miss it.

The action now switches to the right hand side of the screen. The ball will be snapped back to me and I will have instant control of the quarterback. You will at the same time be charging at me in an attempt to 'sack' me. Each of the men you put to mark on mine will go for them. What you do with the player you control is up to you, but I suggest you try and get him to make an intercept.

Right, are you ready? Go! And it's all over, my 'split end' has just scored. You were too slow. Takes a bit of getting used to, doesn't it? Just in case you missed it there's now a replay going on in much larger size on the left-hand side of the screen.

Now all I have to do is kick for the extra point. I select the right power on the screen and there we go, another point and it's turning into a massacre for the Bears again. Go away and practise with the computer for a couple of weeks.

I'm a bit torn about Super Bowl. It is very exact and precise. All the rules are there and the simulation works perfectly. It's a shame that the players are limited to the size they are by the C64's sprite capacity. If there is a way around it Softstone, the game's programmers, couldn't think of it.

The speed of the thing isn't as slow as it may sound because the selections don't take long once you're used to the game. The computer will also select by default for you - suggesting an option at each stage. All you have to do is keep hitting the fire button.

As simulations go I don't see anyone doing any better with American Football. The strategy and possible moves the game allows, not to mention the convoluted rules, sap a lot of available memory. To have made the game prettier with good animation and larger figures would inevitably have detracted from the gameplay and that is what counts.

Nevertheless a game you have to apologise for suggests that it isn't going to be a classic. It all depends on how much of a fan you are. Me, I think it's my turn to punt.