Manchester United Europe

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Manchester United is the world's first game based on the famous British Football Club of the same name. Although it takes a completely different approach against the big two (Sensible Soccer and Kick Off), it's still almost as playable if not as much fun! The game supports headers, volleys and sliding tackles (moves so hard to master with Kick Off and Sensible). The only difficulty is to master the control of your shots. But once you learn it, you will begin to reap the benefits immediately. Note that that players can get suspended for fouls while the opponent may get injured. Both free kicks and corners can be accurately aimed by moving a cursor wherever you want the ball to land. There's a bit of managing to do via the icon-driven menu system. Each team member has its own position and several individual skill ratings. The players aren't set by their abilities though: You can use the relevant training option to improve each of the six attributes. Old players can be sold and new players can be purchased via the transfer system. You can attempt to buy any player of the transfer list or make a bid for those not listed, although they're likely to cost more. If another club makes a bid for one of your players you can accept, refuse or even insult the scout if it's a derisory offer!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The ST has nice graphics, though there are a few details missing compared to the Amiga and Archimedes versions. Regarding the framerate, unfortunately there are some glitches since the ST version has just a few frames per sprite! I would expect much more from the ST as the game detects and utilizes the Blitter chip (for smoother graphics memory procession). One of the best animations can be seen when you score a goal. The goalkeeper runs down the pitch and slides on his knees, enjoying the team's fans cheers and at the same time the rest of the players are celebrating clapping both their hands in the air. As for this version's sound, the ST features a pretty cool intro theme and a few random crowd cheering and other sound effects that are not sampled unfortunately.

GAMEPLAY SAMPLE VIDEO
On our video below you may watch both the Atari ST and Amiga OCS versions of the game.