Let's Play...Giant Killers

BBC Sport Online reviewer David Gibbon says football management game Giant Killers has its faults but 'stattos' will be happy with it.

Take a look around and you'll discover a plethora of games devoted to taking a lowly football team from the depths of despair to Premiership and International glory.

There's the excellent LMA Manager series on PlayStation and Championship Manager on PC.

In fact, even the Sinclair Spectrum (a computer from the early eighties) had its fair share with the likes of Football Manager and Football Director.

  Giant Killers

Format: Sega Dreamcast

Price: £29.99

Publisher: On-Line Sports

Genre: Football

Also Available: PC CD-Rom

One format that has been surprisingly lacking in this field up until now is the Sega Dreamcast.

Unbelievable when you consider the company spent a whopping £10m sponsoring the backs of the Arsenal team.

Now at last, long-suffering Dreamcast fans have the chance to get their paws on a top-flight football management game - On-Line Sports' bizarrely-titled Giant Killers.

Deprived DC owners are sure to welcome the game with open arms after being deprived of a much sought after product and I'm happy to report it's not a bad effort at all.

It offers you the chance to take on the role of managing any of the teams currently playing in the English leagues, from the Conference right up to the Premiership.

There's three different skill levels, allowing the novice or more experienced player to get in on the act without too much fuss.

Unlike LMA on the PSone, you don't get to watch any of the games themselves.

This will be laughed at by those lucky enough to own LMA - probably the best management game on any format.

Instead, Giant Killers is based on the old school where all the action is shown via detailed text-based commentary.

Although gamers who have grown up with this style of football management game will love it, younger players may become irritated by having to read large amounts of on-screen text.

To make sure this doesn't occur, the developers have included a feature that allows you to change the level of commentary detail - from just the goals right up to analysis on every single pass.

As with all management games, you have a full squad of players and must select the best line-up and formation from all the options available.

  Gibbon's verdict

Graphics: 48%

Playability: 82%

Sound: 53%

Realism: 84%

Overall: 78%

In addition, there's some great versatility when setting up your team. For example, you can move players forward to make them more attacking - or get them back if the defence is weak.

The transfer market is also well done, although, disappointingly, it doesn't allow you to buy players from abroad - only those playing in the English leagues.

While the graphics are nothing to write home about, Giant Killers is still a very playable management game that gives players lots of control over tactics and strategy.

For true football fans that love nothing more than to be knee deep in statistics, this is just perfect.