Considering the limitations of the CPC's hardware, this is an excellent rugby game. The front end where you select the game mode, teams, etc. is presented in the CPC's MODE 0, so it has a colourful, if blocky, look. You can select several real world international teams such as New Zealand, England and Wales. When you get to the actual game, the graphics change to resemble a Spectrum game. However, this is to the benefit of the gameplay, as everything runs smoothly and benefits from decent controls for passing, scrums, running and conversions. This is a supremely playable sports game and in my opinion could be described as the best sports game on the Amstrad CPC.

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If this game represented a country in the World Cup, it wouldn't get past the first round. You, and up to seven other players, can take part in the World Cup and choose from eight (yes, only eight!) countries. Which country you choose affects how well you play. You then get to play a match, which lasts about five minutes. Primitive graphics and jerky scrolling, combined with an irritating tune that plays continuously in the background and frustrating gameplay (such as an apparent inability of your players to tackle and a tendency for control to switch to another player at all the wrong times), make this a game to stay clear of.

See also: World Cup Carnival.

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World Cup Carnival
(US Gold, 1986)

This was the official World Cup computer game back in 1986, and as you may well be aware, it has gone down in history as being one of the worst games ever. What allegedly happened was that the original game that had been written by the contracted programmers was so awful that US Gold realised they could not sell it, so instead they used Artic's World Cup (which is also an awful game), made some very minor modifications to it, and sold it at full price, along with a few extras which weren't worth the extra money. It was an outrage, and rightly so. The CPC version actually includes a few extra bits, which are very poor and very boring indeed and deserve zero marks. In fact, Amstrad Action gave this game 0%, and I certainly agree with them!

See also: World Cup.

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Take either England, Scotland or the Republic of Ireland to glory in their bid to win the 1990 World Cup in Italy, through the qualifying rounds, the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, and the big one itself. The match highlights in this game thankfully aren't too long, although the players are difficult to see as they're all nearly the same colour as the pitch – that's smart! Surprisingly for a football management game, there are plenty of graphics, and 128K owners can even hear some music. Lots of graphics, however, means a lack of options, which will disappoint hardened fans of football management games, but I liked the simplicity myself. You'll probably win the World Cup on the easy skill level on your first go, but the other two skill levels are more challenging.

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After US Gold's shameful World Cup Carnival in 1986, it was Virgin's turn to release the official World Cup computer game for the 1990 tournament. The result is good, but somewhat flawed. For some reason, you can only choose to play as one of four teams – England, Belgium, Italy or Spain. What about all the other teams? You also discover that no matter what team you choose, you always play in purple, and your opponents always play in white. Each match always lasts four minutes, but the teams do not swap sides at half time. The animation of the players is very good, but the game feels strangely silent with an almost total lack of sound effects, and it had the potential to be much better and more enjoyable than it is.

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World of Sports is a cartridge game that makes good use of the extra features of the Plus machines. Graphically it looks very impressive with fantastic use of colours and well drawn sprites, and there is also an excellent tune. The gameplay is quite fast and smooth. I really enjoyed seeing how fast the gameplay and movement of sprites were; it felt like I wasn't playing an Amstrad CPC game, and this is what sets it apart from many other CPC games, especially in the multi-sporting event genre. However I do feel somewhat disappointed by the staying power. While you can choose to practice an event or play all them one after the other, there are only four events – BMX stunt riding, slalom skiing, surfing and cliff diving – and they feel like mini-games. It's over very swiftly and you are given only three attempts on each event.

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Baseball may not have much of a following beyond America, but this game certainly makes it fun. You can play either against the computer or with a friend, as you play nine innings and take it in turns to bat and bowl in alternate innings. The rules are well implemented, and you can even choose how you want to bowl – fast or slow, high or low. Scoring home runs is a great feeling, too! The graphics are good and colourful for a game as old as this one, and the sound and music are both good as well, especially the applause from the crowd. I don't like the way the game goes straight into demo mode as soon as it's loaded, though.

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Compete in the World Soccer League against 31 other well known teams. You can choose any of six British teams, although you can change the name of your team. There are also five skill levels. As far as football management games go, it's not the most advanced of the lot; there aren't many options, and you can't train your players or make decisions on team formation and tactics. Furthermore, there are absolutely no graphics to speak of; everything is presented in a text-only format, with no effort made to even change the default colours – and you even have to press the CAPS LOCK key before the game starts! It doesn't give a great impression, but some people like simple football management games, and this is one such example.

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The Worm in Paradise
(Level 9, 1985)
Reviewed by Richard Lamond

The finale of the Silicon Dream trilogy is arguably one of the most adult-themed text adventures to grace the CPC. A broadside on the politics of the day, The Worm in Paradise begins with a symbolic dream sequence after which you find yourself in a Utopian 'paradise' – but are things what they seem to be? Taking the best of the previous instalments, The Worm in Paradise is not as oppressively difficult as Return to Eden but it is still a tougher prospect than Snowball. The graphics haven't improved much either, but the storyline is where The Worm in Paradise excels, creating what feels like a real world and exploring ideas not generally touched on by computer games of that time. Be warned, though; the game's transport system is guaranteed to frustrate and it will take a long time to complete this game without resorting to cheating!

See also: Return to Eden, Snowball.

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The setting is ancient Greece. You are one of the gods of Greek mythology who has incurred the wrath of the all-powerful god Zeus. As a punishment, Zeus has cast a curse of forgetfulness upon you, and now you don't even know who you are. The only way to restore your memory is to enter the realm of Hades and drink the water from the Pool of Remembrance. This is a text adventure written with GAC, and the storyline is quite interesting, with all these great tales involving the gods. Many Olympian gods and other mythical creatures appear in the game, and pictures have been sacrificed for a larger map and more descriptive text. However, it's difficult to see what the puzzles are and how to solve them. Maybe you're supposed to have a good grasp of Greek mythology to play the game properly, but not a lot of people do.

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