Format : Amiga, PC
Developer : Sensible Software
Publisher : GT Interactive
Players : 1-2
As a teenager, my copious amounts of free time was not spent sneaking into pubs and x-rated movies, nor was it trying to smoke or learn Kurt Cobain's lyrics off by heart - no, for me it was spent in my bedroom with my Amiga 1200 overheating to the excessive play of Sensible World of Soccer. As you can probably guess, I wasn't exactly the coolest of kids, but in my own little world as manager of a tiny, pixellated Arsenal team, I was THE MAN.
You see, SWOS absorbed me into a world I never knew (or have since), where you get so immersed in a game, it all begins to matter so much. So very, very much. Days at college were spent pondering whether to buy that left-back from Finland, whether to add another man to our counter-attacks, or whether I should be swayed by the yachts and subsequent women a job at AS Monaco would surely bring if I were to accept their job offer. Needless to say, my GCSE results were not of "academic" standard...
It certainly overwhelmed footie fans with its amazing depth and detail, the original Sensi had been quite simply the best game of football you could play with joystick in hand (itself, relegating Dino Dini's Kick Off series into non-league status), but this was in another league altogether. One of about 5,000 to be precise, for SWOS catered for players and teams the world over. You name them, they were included - from Barnet to Arsenal to AC Milan through to the wonderfully named Ghanaian giants Hearts of Oak (although Players of Cack would have been a more accurate moniker), all with correct names and values - it was a footie nuts' dream.
But what of the game itself? Pure addictive heaven, that's what. By starting a career mode, you could manage or player/manage your team of choice through 20 seasons, moving onto pastures new if you became successful (even national team jobs came up, letting you literally hand-pick your squads for each international game - hooray, no more Emile Heskey!). A brilliantly designed tactics board was also made available, where you could place the ball anywhere on the pitch and assort your players accordingly, meaning you could finely tune every single move on the pitch - revolutionary and not bettered since.
And whilst most games these days require you to pull off moves via button combos only a double-jointed gymnast could handle, SWOS had one button needed. Yep, just the one - "kick". God bless you Sensi. Outrageous aftertouch could be added though after you'd booted the ball, culminating in cracking banana efforts bending into top corners, and superb slide-rule passes being glided through to onrunning attackers. The matches went from end to end like a basketball game, with sliding tackles, brave headers and physics-defying shots flying in all over the place - the sheer charm and charisma of it all simply cannot be underestimated.
Whilst the later-released PC version was perfectly respectable (and scores extra points for having Jonathan Pearce commentating - particular glee came in the form of slotting home a penalty and him musing "oohh, the iceman cometh"), as is XBox Live's recent installment, it never felt the same unless it was being played on the old Amiga (same goes for the original Sensi - the Megadrive and SNES versions just couldn't quite cut it). I'm also sending my hat into the air to Sensible Software for putting together one of the great magazine cover-disk freebies ever in "Cannon Soccer" - a mash-up of Sensi and Cannon Fodder, where the ball was replaced by a hand-grenade which exploded at random times leaving less and less players on the pitch (the game came coloured in black and white, with England and Germany playing in the '66 World Cup strips. Genius)
The theme tune "goalscoring superstar hero" was annoyingly catchy, the attention to detail was phenomenal, the ability to suck you in was second-to-none - a Dyson in videogame form if you will, while the simplicity and the "just one more game before bed" playability was not surpassed by anything on the Amiga. As Pro Evo and FIFA go head-to-head each October trying to become the most realistic footie sim ever, for some its like two bald men fighting over a comb - a sad and pointless task. Some would think that particular competition ended some fifteen years ago. I'm one of them.
Cloud Master (1989, Master System, PC Engine & NES, Taito, 1 Player)
classic and no mistaking. How I can keep it together whilst remeniscing here is something of a challenge, such was my love for this little shooter. Just seeing pictures of it now remind me how amazed I was at the whole look of it at the time (a rather strange isometric viewpoint was used, as well as unique polygon style graphics) - seeing the rolling landscape come into view and bombing various enemies with rare precision was a beautiful thing indeed. Think, a moody, darker version of Desert Strike and you won't be far off. Great stuff.
classic and no mistaking. How I can keep it together whilst remeniscing here is something of a challenge, such was my love for this little shooter. Just seeing pictures of it now remind me how amazed I was at the whole look of it at the time (a rather strange isometric viewpoint was used, as well as unique polygon style graphics) - seeing the rolling landscape come into view and bombing various enemies with rare precision was a beautiful thing indeed. Think, a moody, darker version of Desert Strike and you won't be far off. Great stuff.
