Hank Scorpio wrote: ↑Wed Sep 30, 2020 8:13 am
What does everyone think of the fairly average reviews JSW 2 got? OK, so it's just JSW with extra rooms but personally I enjoyed it just as much.
I think the problem with JSW2 was that it
wasn't really Jet Set Willy 2. People were desperate to play Miner Willy Meets the Taxman, it had been talked about for months at this point and by the time JSW2 came out, it did feel like a bit of a "greatest hits" cash in by the label while the artist was still trying to come up with the next album (while having writer's block!).
When it was released in 1985, it was a strange time as although it had only been about 12 months since Jet Set Willy, it seemed like the Spectrum had really moved on. Maybe it had moved into the era of "graphics over gameplay", but I remember picking up Jet Set Willy II on the 6 Pack Vol 2 compilation and thinking it was a really good game, but one of the problems with the original JSW was that it was just too big and sprawling (especially compared to the original Manic Miner) and adding another 70 rooms didn't really help. But I guess JSW2 is what JSW
should have been and in a way it should be held in higher regard.
Anyway, I searched for some of the games that a) I really enjoyed back in the 80s and b) I still play now and I was surprised that one of my favourite games,
Footballer of the Year, received some strange reviews when it was first released. 68% in Crash, 7/10 in Your Sinclair but a measly
1 out of 5 from Sinclair User. Yes, 1 out of 5!
This was on the same page that Super Soccer from Imagine, which is an absolute pile of crap, got 4/5!
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 59&page=46
I was thinking "how did I get a hold of Footballer of the Year originally" and I remembered that my football daft friend (who would even buy those niche football management games from Cult) bought both Super Soccer AND Footballer of the Year that month. We were desperate to try out Super Soccer, it sounded like a pseudo sequel to Match Day (it was even from the same label, well, sort of the same label) and it was so disappointing. How did it get 4/5 in Sinclair User (the mag I read at the time) AND 8/10 in Your Sinclair (the mag he read at the time, although we swapped in 87)???
But Footballer of the Year really captured the essence of 8-bit home computer games. It didn't even bother to try and recreate the game of Football. Instead it took on a more surreal approach. You control a football. That football can only attack at goal, with either defenders or as a penalty. It was basically Trailblazer but on a football pitch. In certain scenarios. But then the rest of the game was kind of like a board game. You bought cards that allowed you to play matches. You could gamble. Incidents would happen to you that could help or hinder your progress. In fact, it was turned into a board game... "Gary Lineker's sh*t Your Pants at the World Cup". Sorry, "Gary Lineker's Footballer of the Year"
But it was such good fun. You weren't playing football, you were playing a great little game that could only really happen on a computer (unless you were playing the board game, but it didn't have the Trailblazer football bits). It must have done well enough through word of mouth as it managed to get a sequel.
for the Spectrum (and I'd include Jet Set Willy 2 in that!)
