Match Day II

Matchday II
ZX Spectrum Cover art
Developer(s)	Ocean Software
Publisher(s)	Ocean Software
Designer(s)	Jon Ritman
Platform(s)	Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum
Release	1987
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	1 or 2 players

Match Day II is a football sports game part of the Match Day series released for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, MSX and Commodore 64 platforms. It was created in 1987 by Jon Ritman with graphics by Bernie Drummond and music and sound by Guy Stevens (except for the Commodore version, that was a line by line conversion to the extent made by John Darnell).

The controls consist of four directions (allowing eight directions including diagonals) and a shot button. Each team has seven players, including goalkeeper and there are league and cup options available.

The game is highly addictive due to its difficulty level, the complete control over ball direction, power and elevation (using a Diamond Deflection System), and the importance of tactics and player positioning over the field (barging if necessary), which makes it challenging to break strong defences. Was the first game to use a kickometer.

The game plays the song When the Saints Go Marching In while the players are walking to their initial positions on the field at the beginning of each half.

The ZX Spectrum version of the game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behind Out Run, and was voted the 10th best game of all time in a special issue of Your Sinclair magazine in 2004.

Matchday is the ancestor of this videogame. There is also another version of this game for ZX Spectrum 128KB, International Match Day, including national teams.

The game is similar to a previously, not published game by Jon Ritman, Soccerama. Later, in 1995, Jon Ritman tried to release Match Day III, but due to copyright problems he had to change the name of the game to Super Match Soccer.