New week new blog, very much enjoying writing, feel I'm improving hopefully those who read my blogs think the same,reader numbers appear ok (to be honest i have no idea what the marker is for defining a successful blog) so i will continue blissfully ignorant, having previously wrote a blog to market my twitch channel on wordpress a few years ago i would say that numbers for this blog are indeed better.
I thought today i would take a look at Football sim titles from the past and see if we could unearth some gems to discuss. In today's current gen era we have pretty much one title that has a tight grip around the market, 2 titles if you are feeling generous, we have the Fifa franchise from EA Sports and Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami, there was a time that the question 'are you Fifa or Pro Evo' was a important question, say the wrong one and that could be the end of any budding friendship, is up there with are you team Rick or Team Negan. Me i have switched between both throughout the years, beginning my footballing game days on Fifa 94 and 95, then making the switch to ISS on the Nintendo 64. Playstation 1 and 2 was largely spent playing Pro Evolution and from then on it was largely Fifa again, this football game education spanned from roughly the end of the Sega Mega Drive era up until now, but what about the multitude of football/soccer titles that existed pre Mega drive.
Much like our piece on Driving sims of the past and the influence that would have had on developers creating titles in the modern era, footballing titles of the past will have had the same impact. The seasoned veteran gamer of my age and older will no doubt have heard or played most of the titles we will cover today, and perhaps some younger gamers with a thirst and respect for vintage games.
During my research for this piece i did unearth footage of playthoughs of some of the titles and found some not so pleasant comments with regards to gameplay, graphics etc.
Enough of the rambling on onto the actual content.
Nintendo World Cup - Nintendo 1990
I have fond memories of this particular game, having just reached double digits in life when i was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Nintendo World Cup, i was ready for the glory and the spoils. My immediate memory of the game was the increasing difficulty as you progress the game, straight knockout competition, from my recollection Cameroon being the easiest and first round opponent working up to West Germany in the final. The game was actually quite brutal, being able to knock opponents out leaving them lying in a perfect pixilated rectangle for a time. What the game is ultimately remembered for is the super shot, get a ball in the air and as it drops bash a and b at the same time and unleash a shot that would have the ball making all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes before usually rifling in the back of the net, blowing away any opposing player unlucky enough to get in the way.
I took the liberty of watching a playthough on You Tube, just as i remembered it, great and frustrating at the same time, no real longevity to it due to the limited format, the one thing keeping the interest is the fact every nation in the game has a different super shot to try.
Sensible Soccer - Sensible Software 1992
I doubt that any list of retro footballing titles wouldn't include this cult retro classic, I would strongly bet that any gamer around my age group who plays Fifa or Pro evolution will have played this on Amiga, Atari of even SNES at some point. SWOS was a flag bearer of football sims around about this time, we had others suck as Kick off 1 & 2, Sierra Soccer, World cup on the Mega Drive but none for me measured up to SWOS.
The game is shot overhead and as you may or may not have guessed the game engine is exactly that of Cannon Fodder, Sensible Software's military themed title. The subsequent versions of SWOS went on to have quite a lot of depth to them, from what i recall the latter versions having quite a robust managerial mode with just about every league you could think off, the player data base was massive. This is another title that gets the WinUAE treatment from me although i do have a SNES version as well
Graphically you know it doesn't compare but the game itself was as challenging as any i have played when coming up against the bigger teams, definetely one i spent hours on in joyous, victory or very close to rage quitting when conceding that equaliser in the last 5 mins.
Career mode starts you off as a trialist, create your chosen character, nationality and skin tone and select from a pre set face for that tone and obviously position. From this we play our trial game to see if we get picked for our club (you always do otherwise whats the point right)
I thought today i would take a look at Football sim titles from the past and see if we could unearth some gems to discuss. In today's current gen era we have pretty much one title that has a tight grip around the market, 2 titles if you are feeling generous, we have the Fifa franchise from EA Sports and Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami, there was a time that the question 'are you Fifa or Pro Evo' was a important question, say the wrong one and that could be the end of any budding friendship, is up there with are you team Rick or Team Negan. Me i have switched between both throughout the years, beginning my footballing game days on Fifa 94 and 95, then making the switch to ISS on the Nintendo 64. Playstation 1 and 2 was largely spent playing Pro Evolution and from then on it was largely Fifa again, this football game education spanned from roughly the end of the Sega Mega Drive era up until now, but what about the multitude of football/soccer titles that existed pre Mega drive.
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| This years offerings from EA & Konami |
Much like our piece on Driving sims of the past and the influence that would have had on developers creating titles in the modern era, footballing titles of the past will have had the same impact. The seasoned veteran gamer of my age and older will no doubt have heard or played most of the titles we will cover today, and perhaps some younger gamers with a thirst and respect for vintage games.
During my research for this piece i did unearth footage of playthoughs of some of the titles and found some not so pleasant comments with regards to gameplay, graphics etc.
Enough of the rambling on onto the actual content.
Nintendo World Cup - Nintendo 1990
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| Gymnast turned footballer letting rip a super shot |
I took the liberty of watching a playthough on You Tube, just as i remembered it, great and frustrating at the same time, no real longevity to it due to the limited format, the one thing keeping the interest is the fact every nation in the game has a different super shot to try.
Sensible Soccer - Sensible Software 1992
I doubt that any list of retro footballing titles wouldn't include this cult retro classic, I would strongly bet that any gamer around my age group who plays Fifa or Pro evolution will have played this on Amiga, Atari of even SNES at some point. SWOS was a flag bearer of football sims around about this time, we had others suck as Kick off 1 & 2, Sierra Soccer, World cup on the Mega Drive but none for me measured up to SWOS.
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| Game image from Sensible Soccer |
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| SWOS had the option to simulate games/results as well as play through with your chosen team |
ISS 2000 - Konami 1999
Before Konami reverted to the name change that still exists today in Pro Evolution Soccer its previous titles were known as International Superstar Soccer, and before we had the likes of Alex Hunter and the Journey via Fifa we had career mode in ISS 2000.
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| ISS 2000, training mode |
Par for the course with alot of N64 titles we found the graphics quite block like (see goldeneye) as another example, but aside from that ISS 2000 was quite a challenge, providing you set the difficulty to give you a good game rather than beast every side 6, 8, 9-0. Now the game was International teams only but actually quite extensive, teams such as a San Marino and the Faro Islands feature, the usual choices of friendly, cups and leagues were there to choose from, but one new feature came to the fore and it wasn't half bad.
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| The internet what the hell is that |
Career mode starts you off as a trialist, create your chosen character, nationality and skin tone and select from a pre set face for that tone and obviously position. From this we play our trial game to see if we get picked for our club (you always do otherwise whats the point right)
The modes main goal is to get you your first cap for your country, until that point you have to balance training to build your attributes up, team bonding, even get yourself a girlfriend and keep her happy all the while trying to make it.
Some of the Dialogue is so cheesy you can smell it through the console but hey so bad its good right. Now if we are to make it and get that call up you can actually log the finished player into the games database to be used in all the other none career modes, definitely ahead of its time.
3 footballing titles that all offered something different but with the end result always being the same, i played all 3 and I'm glad i did.
Our next piece is going to be a top 10 article. I recently came across a You Tube channel MetalJesusRocks and i have to say very impressed with the content. I watched a ps2 top ten video and it got me thinking about my own top ten and how it would look.
Very fond memories of the PS2, i was around 20 years old when Sony released the console, my twenties were a mixture of study, alcohol and gaming so it was a great time.
Definitely away to research my top 10 and maybe dig out my ps2 to see if it still fires up.
Happy Gaming.
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