"Hoof it in the reticule, fotherington-tomas."

EA's ever-improving FIFA series is beginning to wear down the dogged defence of the mighty ISS. Can Eidos' latest nip in and steal the winner?
Andy Ashwin

So is this just World League Soccer '98 with the boy Owen's mug on the box?
Not really. It's actually World League Soccer '99 with the boy Owen's mug on the box and without the words 'World' and 'League'. Silicon Dreams have basically kept the intuitive control method used in WLS '98 and complemented it with additional moves and improved high-resolution graphics.

So I'll need to dish out 30 quid for an Expansion Pak?
Surprisingly not. The action zips along at a cracking pace with some of the finest visuals yet seen on the N64. The Expansion Pak is only used for some spectacular (and lengthy) replays. Nice touch if you've already got one, but no reason to splash out if you haven't.

That's a relief. So how good are the graphics?
At a glance you'd think that you were playing on a graphic-becarded top-end PC which had probably hoovered up £1,000. Really, it looks that good. One look at the players and you'll see the incredible depth of the graphical detail - each player in a given team looks distinctly different from the next.

Erm... great. So what about the fancy moves?
Well, there's a total of 23 combos with which to dazzle and embarrass, although it'll take some dedication to master them all. Suffice to say there are plenty of flicks, shimmies and dummies. Perhaps the neatest touch is the 'extend' feature - press the right shoulder button to wrap your foot around the ball, maximising the amount of accuracy and curl in a shot.