After the runaway success of Tracksuit Manager, which put the player in the boots of a football club boss, comes Boxing Manager. Same ideas, new sport.

Your stable can cope with up to five boxers, so a day in the life of a manager starts in the office trying to fix up some fights for hyour boxers. There are two governing bodies in the game, the World Council of International Boxing and the Federation of World Boxing. All your boxers start off right at the bottom of the list of graded boxers and fights can only be arranged with boxers of a similar class.

Things to consider when fixing up a fight include just how much of the gate money you're prepared to take and which governing body you want to supervise the fight (because they each class boxers differently). Once a fight is arranged the best thing to do is check on the boxer and decide which are his strengths and weaknesses, then advise the trainer on what the boxer should be concentrating on. You can also call a scout to spy on the opponent and report back on his strengths and weaknesses.

Then the big day arrives and you can watch your boy in action. Two commentators tell you what's happening during the 10-round bout and at the en of every round you play second, administering the cold iron to bruises and the sponge to the face.

Pick your opponents well, keep your boxers happy and in tip-top condition and you may just produce a champion.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The sound effects are fine - unnecessary, but fine (the cat in the hallway will get on your nerves sooner not later, though). The graphics are fine too, being rather well drawn. Looks and sounds better than you would expect for a management game.

LASTING INTEREST

It's not as deep as most football management games but it's still complex enough to keep you at it for a while.

JUDGEMENT

If you're a management game freak you may find it a little too shallow to have you up all night, but if you've never dipped your toes into the management scene this could be just the thing to get you hooked.

For what is only Goliath's second product, World Championship Boxing Manager sets a standard of excellence that a lot of other companies would like to be seen to have.

The reason Goliath's games stand out head and shoulders above the rest is simply the amount of care and attention that goes into them. Take WCBM for a start. Doug Mathews, the man at the top of Goliath Towers, got himself a satellite dish and recorded every single boxing match on the relevant satellite sports channels, and then studied them carefully to try and understand how a boxing match works, right down to how many punches on average will land and how many will be dodged or blocked.

You take on the role of boxing promoter/manager, in charge of anything up to five boxers at any one time and by making all the relevant decisions you have to try and pick these boxers up from out of the gutter and take them to the lofty heights of a world championship in either the FWB league (Federation of World Boxing) or the WCIB (World Council of International Boxing).

But it doesn't end there. In fact, the game doesn't end at all. There is no set pattern to follow, other than to move up ranks by beating opponents placed higher than you. The more impressive you fight, the faster you move. For example, if a 100 ranked player takes on a 97 ranked fighter and only wins on points at the end of the ten rounds, they might move up two places. However, should this player knock out the opponent in the 2nd round, that's worth a certified leap of at least ten places.

The game works along the lines of Tracksuit Manager, in that all decisions are made through highlighting options on menus. The main difference is that now you are no longer faced with a screen of boxed off text.

Every screen has some bits animated, such as Goliath, the company cat, who makes a point of getting into as many screens as possible.

You check the weekly rankings to see who's above you. Then you have to look in your Filofax to find out how good a fighter this person is and who their manager is. When you've found a boxer you want one of your boxers to challenge, you then go to your phone and call up the required manager.
Set a date and a purse percentage. If they agree, you then have to get the fight approved by one of the boxing boards, and you're away.

The fight itself is possibly the best thing about the game. You have a running commentary during the fight, and the power punches rain down thick and fast while all your boxer can do is flail his arms hopelessly. It made me wince just to watch it.

You do have a little bit of say in the run of the game at the end of each round, when you have thirty seconds to try and patch your boxer up by applying a cold iron to the bruising or an adrenalin pad to the cuts, allocating different amounts to each. Then you can instruct the boxer on which style of boxing you think would be best for this particular round, whether that be taking it easy, jabbing to the head or moving out to going for the K.O. and fighting dirty. It's all here and it all works surprisingly well. The A.I. Routines used are some of the best I've ever seen, especially when it comes to generating the 'proper' reactions to different incidents.

There is a lot more I could go into. I could explain the subtleties of the game. Discovering all the little complexities is just part of the fun, and trying to master the fame is the rest. But don't worry, you never will. An incredible product, and a great start to the New Year.

Y ou don't need bulging biceps to earn a living out of boxing: as a manager you can rake in the cash while others take the punches. With a stable of up to five boxers you compete against 17 computer-controlled managers.

The main menu comprises a corridor with three doors leading to the physio (for fitness reports), the gymnasium (where fighters can train in five different ways), and your office.

The latter includes a filing cabinet containing your boxers' contracts, records, and rankings (area, national, and world for both the FWB and WCIB boxing boards). There's also a calendar for advancing the date, and a filofax with useful information such as fight dates, all 100 boxers' flight records, and detailed ability reports for each of your boxers.

The most important piece of office equipment is the telephone, used to contact other managers to arrange fights. A manager may turn down a fight offer if he thinks it's a mismatch, or if you greedily ask for too high a percentage of the purse. Also contacted by phone are two scouts (Limpy and Wimpy!) who can watch fights on your behalf or even spy on other fighters - however, once found out they may enjoy a long stay in hospital! If a fighter is unhappy with his present manager you may be able to poach him.

Of fight night (every Saturday) you can watch a blow-by-blow text commentary of any fight. If one of your boxers is involved you get to work in the corner. Between rounds you have thirty seconds to work on your fighter's injuries using such items as the water bottle, sponge, adrenalin, and cold iron. Tactical instructions (ranging from 'take it easy' to 'fight dirty') can also be given for the next round. Fights may be decided either by knockout, the referee stopping the contest (if a fighter has a bad cut), or on points.