Hopefully 2011 will bring once again some more fine football games to get to grips with later this year.
It’s about this time every year, after 3 months of constant play of the latest titles, and with a relative strange period after Christmas whilst things get back to normal. That I find myself reaching for many old titles, that once graced my machine as regular as the latest release.
But this year I have decided to share some of my past experiences and views on some Retro titles. A blast from the past, hopefully opening up some good debates, over games that would have kept us spending many hours gaming as the latest titles do today.
Retro: - denoting something associated with or revived from the past.
1994, the last time that one of the Big 4 in England didn’t win the Premier League. Kenny Dalglish’s Blackburn Rovers winning the title on the last day of the season, despite losing 2-1 to former club Liverpool, whilst Manchester United could only draw 1-1 with West Ham.
But 1994 can also be remembered for, the Year of Sensible World of Soccer, sensible software’s release to there 1992 hit game Sensible Soccer.
For me Sensible Soccer, was and still is one of the best games to grace any console, and to this day can still be found gracing many sites Top 10 lists of soccer games.
A 2D football game that was played using a zoomed out birds eye view, which included a very comprehensive manager mode, with over 1,500 teams, all the professional leagues as well as all the national and international competitions for all clubs and national teams around the world.
Bend it like Beckham 1994 style
There were different modes to play which included Friendly’s, competitions and a season and a career mode, but most people will remember it for the exaggerated curve you could place on the ball after shooting and passing.
With the most simplest of controls to be found in any football game, Up, Down, Left , Right and Shoot.
The career mode span over 20 years, which allowed you to manage many different clubs from around the globe, it was a first of its time as it try to fit the entire footballing world into one game although many of these teams were very obscure.
All teams featured 16 players all with the correct player’s names for the year, and many people claim the correct kit, but this was hard to identify from the view and the size of the players.
My experiences of SWOS were all played on the Commodore Amiga 64. With many nights spent creating our own 32 team created cup competition. Which me and my brother spent the nights battling down to a winner, normally by a 30 yard drive, which looked like it was heading for the corner flag, until the crazy swerve/curve was applied and took it flying into the top corner, for a spectacular winner.
16 years later this game is still talked about, mainly from my Dad on how he came back from 2-0 down to beat my brother 4-2 in the cup final. The first and only time my dad played the game, but 16 years later he still has his bragging rights, in any sort of gaming conversations this is the true signs of a game that really was something special.
My brother also reminds me how I purchased this game for him for Christmas, but on Christmas morning the gift he received had already been opened and used, but this was the best game at the time. The temptation was too great.
I never was, and still to this day have never been a major player of the career mode in any football game. For me having the ability to create your own leagues and custom tournaments was always more fun. This was a game that compared to some of the games around now cannot compete with the amount of options and flexibility available in customising what you wanted.
Menu Screen
This was arcade gaming at its best. 4 minutes of pure adrenalin, but would it hold up today, probably not. We now seem to be a generation of football gamers who prefer simulation to arcade game play. In the fun game stakes, it most definitely would, as most games were end to end football from start to finish.
Sensible World of Soccer spawned a further 5 editions over the years, which included European Championship and World Cup versions.
In 2007 a new version of sensible world of soccer was released on Xbox live arcade.Itfeatures both the classic retro visuals of the original game, as well as new improved high definition graphics, and retains the exact game play of the 96/97 version of sensible world of soccer.
If you never had the chance to play the original, then this is most defiantly worth a download, a night in with a few friends and a evening of high speed non-stop football, is what football gaming was all about in 1994.
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