League Challenge

Copyright : Atlantis | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

Every now and then a debate will spring up amongst CPC users as to what was the greatest Amstrad game of all time. League Challenge never features in that conversation...

Designed to cash in on the popularity of other such football management programmes like, erm... Football Manager, this game was unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1987 and almost immediately disappeared 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Can you guide your club from the old English 4th division into the giddy heights of the 1st or lay claim to the FA Cup?

Prepare yourself gentle readers for one of the most savage reviews you are ever going to read...

Graphics

It?s unfair to expect much in the way of graphics from football management games (particularly those which, like this release, were retailed for £1.99) and League Challenge certainly isn?t the ugliest looking football management game I?ve ever come across in terms of the menu presentation

No, the problem with League Challenge?s graphics become horrifically apparent when you?re presented with your first set of match highlights. Following in the footsteps of Addictive?s Football Manager, highlights take the form of one team attacking the other?s goal and shots start flying in. The badly drawn sprites take one arthritic steps towards goal and transorm the dot at their feet into a thunderous line which invariably either goes between the poorly drawn sticks to indicate a goal or hits off the rigid goalkeeper.

And, that?s it really. The colours remain constant throughout the game and the flashing line starts to induce migraines after your first three games in charge.

Sound

Unless you count the loading noise that the 464 makes then nothing. Not a single blip.

Gameplay

But how does it play I hear you ask? True, graphics and sound can be an unnecessary distraction in football management games (Champ Manager for the PC never suffered did it!) but unfortunately the key gameplay elements are also sadly lacking. Your training methods resort to little more than picking a number between 1 and 3 each game and your squad selection also makes little or no difference.

As previously mentioned, the highlights are some of the worst I?ve ever seen in any game ever! Occasionally knocking in long shots is all part and parcel of football but the strikers in this game all have feet like Beckham and Roberto Carlos!

It was also a strange obsession that the writers of management games, in this era, had to immediately dump you in the lowest divison and see you try to make the climb into the first. A minimum of three seasons before you can even begin to try and ?win the game?. Thanks but no thanks!

Totally diabolical - I hated this game with a passion when I was younger and was not in the least bit surprised to see that nostalgia and time had done it no favours

Download at your peril!!!