Sinclair User


The Lineker Collection
By Kixx
Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in Sinclair User #124

The Lineker Collection

Breaking people's legs, swearing, getting drunk, fighting and having his picture taken with strange women in nightclubs are all things that Gary Lineker has never done.

He's never put his name to a football compilation before either but he has put it to a few games so now US Gold's gathered together four footy titles that some of you may be too young to remember and put them all together on this pack. Ah, the nostalgia of it all.

Gary Lineker is a household name. And just like Domestos and Mr. Sheen too, he's well known and has a squeeky, just out of the shops sort of clean image. His three football games to date, Super Star Soccer, Superskills and Hot-Shot were fielded by Gremlin up to four years ago so these three games may well seem pretty new to more recent Spectrum owners.

Super Star Soccer combines the factors involved in building up a squad and actually playing matches in order to progress from the 4th division. However, in the arcade section of the game control becomes rather vague, leaving you with a feeling of being left on the sidelines a little. This feeling of not quite being on the field is however fully addressed in Hot Shot! Which, whilst being strikingly similar to the former, has far better controls.

There are no problems with control however in Superskills as the game has you in the role of the 'I will be obeyed' National Coach. All your hard work is put into actually training and coaching your team and putting out a national squad that we all can be justly proud of. (And wave our Union Jacks and shout a lot too, Hurrah!) So get out those shredded wheat and feed your team, you know it the only way to win.

The only non-Gremlin game on this Lineker compilation is Italy 1990. Released by US Gold to coincide with the World Cup in June 1990. It is the most recent of the games on the pack and is almost a hybrid of the two former games, centred around the world cup teams of 1990. It's a full, diving, sliding, tackling arcade football game with each member of your team having different abilities so that you can opt to play them in various positions. This game is possibly the best of the bunch for sheer arcade action. The game moves quickly and control is responsive and has a good feel.

Label: Kixx Memory: 48K/128K Price: £9.99 Tape Reviewer: Tony Naqvi

Overall Summary

The Lineker games just haven't been available together like this or on budget before so this pack will actually fuel anyone who wants to play a range of different football games. It's not a spectacular collection but it does have a variety of games which newer users will not have seen before.

Tony Naqvi

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