Sensible Soccer Longplay (Amiga) [4K]

Game Info
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Developer: Sensible Software
Publisher: Renegade
Year of Release: 1992

Game Review & Impressions
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Football -- soccer, if you prefer -- has never really interestd me, but I have, on occcasion, been known to enjoy the odd video game adaptation. Accessibility has always been key decider in whether I bother to play a footie game longer than five minutes before turning it off, and there are only a select few games that have managed that lofty feat.

Sesnsible Soccer is one of those games. It's regarded by many as the best football game on the Amiga (sorry Kick Off 2 fans) and is a master class in accessibility. The menus, gameplay and general presentation might feel minimalistic, but everything has a near-perfect balance of both form and function. There are no excessive fripperies here, and what is present works exceptionally well. You get access to a ton of different game modes that include various leagues and cups, and a huge roster of international teams with accurate player rosters. Two revisions of the original game were released with additional features, but the original 1.0 release still contains more than enough football action for even the most ardent fan.

When you watch a real football match on TV, you'll observe players passing the ball to other players on their team whilst trying to create openings to line up shots on the opposing team's goal. This often fails to translate to video games because the scale of the graphics and camera distance means you can't see who you're passing to, or the mechanics simply punt the ball in the direction the player was pushing on the joystick at the time. Sensible Soccer nails the concept of passing by scaling the pitch and player graphics such that you have an excellent view of everything going on around the ball. Not only can you can see available players to pass to, the player in possession of the ball will instigate a pass directly to the nearest teammate, provided you were aiming in their general direction.

The passing system is just one aspect of the brilliantly designed control system. The standard joystick used by most players had only a single fire-button, but Sensible side-step this limitation by having the type and strength of kick determined by how long you hold the button down. A quick tap initiates a pass or low ball up-field if no-one is nearby, while holding down the button will blast the ball forward. It's possible to curve or lob the ball using the brilliant aftertouch mechanic by pulling left, right or down on the joystick just as the ball leaves the player's feet. The window of opportunity for applying aftertouch is limited, but it becomes second nature with practice. The only improvement I'd make to the controls is to have the ball stick to the feet of the player in possession more consistently.

Sensible Soccer is a brilliant game, and that's coming from someone who doesn't even particularly like the sport on which its based! The single player game is good enough thanks to a reasonably adept CPU player, but where this really shines is couch co-op with friends. This is a stonkingly good game, one bettered only by it's own sequel, Sensible World of Soccer.

Chapters
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0:00:00 Title credits
0:01:56 Gameplay