Rengade
£25.99
ST footy games aren't exactly in short supply. There are around 15 different variations of the game that you can sample in pixel form, with Anco's Kick Off 2 being widely accepted as the ultimate benchmark. So, why on earth do we need one more? Wasn't it John Paul Getty who said, "a saturated market is a dead market?" Or Richard Branson, or Pete Beale - someone like that, anyway.
New Balls Please
Hopelessly addicted to Kick Off 2, the chaps at Sensible Software came to the conclusion that, although the overall format of the game was excellent, it could do with a spot of enhancing and tinkering with. And lo, it came to pass that Sensible Soccer was born.
It's that overhead view again, with the players passing, booting and battling for possession over the length and breadth of a scrolling pitch. The skeleton of the program offers a hectic game of footy with, of course, the winners being lauded and the losers being ridiculed. Get the ball into the back of our opponent's net, don't inadvertently your cave in anyone's shins, don't get too abusive with the referee and, er, that's about it. Except it isn't.
Jim Morrison
You have, at your fingertips, such an awesome array of options and customisable features that - once you've finished messing with them - it's a wonder you're left with a game that resembles football at all. Team members, kit colours, formations, crowd chanting and cheering, game length, replays and savable highlights, music and even the weather can be altered and redefined beyond recognition. You can call up original national teams, club sides and your own custom teams - the program comes with a disk to show you the general idea. The custom teams can be composed of whoever you like - famous idiots, dead people, favourite movie stars - which means you have the joy of watching Bogart dribbling his way around Ronald Reagan or Jim Morrison before putting one away in the 38th minute. And that's not all... if you hap- pen to have one or two friends, you can set up Leagues, Super Leagues, European Cups, Egg Cups and Chicken Leagues... honest. So, if because of some unlikely and manic whim, you fancy representing our illustrious national side with your own joystick's manoeuvring abilities, in a test of skill and judgment against your chums' choices of teams, you can. Alternatively, if your buddies are washing their hair or down the pub, you can just choose two teams and enjoy a plain and simple friendly match with nothing at stake but your ego. Even if you have no friends whatsoever - which is extremely unlikely, isn't it? - you can still play through all of the leagues, cups and friendlies with your ever-reliable chum, your ST.
Joystick control is weird and wonderful. Passing the ball to team colleagues requires pointing yourself in roughly the right direction and tapping the
VERDICT
Let's slice through the garbage - is Sensible Soccer any good? How does it improve on Kick Off 2? During a particularly intense session of sky-staring, Alfred Lord Tennyson said ''...God fulfils himself in many ways..." Indeed, God is most definitely in charge here. Sensible Soccer is achingly wondedul and its name is set to become firmly implanted in the minds of football enthusiasts as the ultimate in ST sports simulations.
As with Lemmings, the incredible and immediate appeal of the game lies in its simplicity. The method of joystick control is, at first, difficult to master but soon feels natural and instinctive. If you are unimpressed with the initial dwarfish look of the graphics, take a tip from Robert The Bruce and persevere. You're not going to throw away a brilliant book because you don't like the typeface, are you? The game's graphics are actually pretty effective and expressive in spite of their small side.
When you're playing with friends, the pace and challenge of the game evokes a brilliant and very real sense of excitement. You're going to be amazed at the feeling of involvement and fun Sensible Soccer creates - effortlessly amplifying and elevating the experience of messing around with ST games. kick Off 2's influence is obvious, but Sensible Soccer never ventures into lazy, rip- off territory. If you subscribe to the ''you can never have too much of a good thing'' philosophy, then the only time you're going to be able to drag yourself away is to get some- thing to eat and drink. Sensible soccer is wonderful stuff - a veritable black hole of depth with acres and acres of playability thrown in. If you like football, this is your promised land. If you don't, it's a superb game anyway.
By far the best and most effective footy game around Sensible Soccer looks wonderful, plays beautifully and has an incredibly user- friendly set of customising options - the most fun you can have indoors without taking your team scarf off.
By Andy Lowe
1. The shot... oh, and wha a save!
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2. The rebound. Dangerous...
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3. The goal. 'Nuff said.Yeah but... a better goalie can save the ball and keep it, offering you no chance whatsoever to exploit the rebound. Oh well.
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1. First, choose your direction and hold it. The goalie jumps randomly left or right so it's really just a matter of intuition
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2. He shoots! But, ahem, it's the wrong way and the goalie saves it. Reminds you a bit of that moment in 1990 England vs West Germany World Cup semi-final, doesn't it? Grrr...
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DIRECT APPROACH
1. Leg it right down to the penalty area, blow a raspberry at the goalie and shoot the ball diagonally into theback of the net. 2. Ignore the second part of (1). Yeah, but... this requires quite a hight level of dribbling skill. If you haven't familiarised yourself with the joystick control system first, you end up having the ball nabbed off you by the goalie and have to stand in front of him,
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CHEEKY APPROACH
1. Manoeuvre the ball into a half-decent position just inside your own opponents half. 2. Chip the ball - using aftertouch - towards the goal, putting a slight swerve on it. Yeah, but... get it right and it looks spectacular. Get it wrong and it's the most hilariously pathetic spectacle in the history of football.
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1. Sneak down to your opponent's penalty area and make like you're going to run off the pitch with the ball and instigate a goal kick. Instead turn and shoot accross, swerving the ball immediately towards the goal...
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2. ...the ball will defy all the goalie's attempts to stop it and curl around into the net. You hope. Yeah, but... if you run too far the ball slips over the line and, well, that's that.
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