Reviews

Loved this game back in the day and I must admit I was a grandmaster of this game ! My best score i still remember was 22-0 on the hardest level.

The game hasnt aged well I must admit, on the easiest level the computer really is dreadful and kicks the ball out of play often.

But for the Speccy back in the early 80's this was by far the best footy game there was, Match Day II (Despite its more 'cute' graphics) was far better but for many Match of the Day was one of the first footy games they played on the Speccy, a classic.

This game at the time was good but nowadays has aged considerably!

It was a side scrolling football game which was ok. I remember having fun playing it but wouldn't recommend it these days. It was far too slow to be honest.

The Spectrum soccer game per excellence !

Often imitated, never equaled.

1984 Ocean
by Jon Ritman and Chris Clarke

Match Day is for me one of the most iconic games of the Spectrum era, not just for it's sentimental value, which its quite big, I played countless times, but also for it's value as a game.
The exquisite presentation, graphics and sound, and specially gameplay, turned this game into one of the best games to scratch the surface of the software world of its time.
The game has it's faults specially when compared to other classics like 'Emlyn Hughes'. Thankfully some were corrected in the sequel, but its still a brilliant game.
For me this together with 'Emlyn Hughes' is the SOCCER game of reference in the ZX Spectrum.

One of the first mega sports games on the Speccy and no doubt one of the more enjoyable soccer games on the Speccy.......it's just aged so badly! Still it's easily one of my favourite soccer games on the Spectrum.......guess it's a just a nostalgic thing.

Match Day was pretty popular in it's time. And whilst it was better than most of the dross around at the time it's still a very poor football game.

Even though Match Day doesn't look so hot nowadays, even though it moves a bit like constipation, even though it clashes like a malfunctioned kaleidoscope, it's still (for me) a really fun soccer game that I always have fun playing. It's one of those games that always helps me pass the time by with enjoyment and thrills, I just love the gameplay in it, it feels so much like a soccer game when I play it.

As bad as it looks it's still a game I really enjoy playing, it always provides a certain charm to me.

The first good football game for the Speccy.

A total eye opener when it first came out. You could head the ball! You could deliver a cross. You could go on a mazy run.
One of my favourite games back in 1985. It hasn' t aged well but still has 'something'.

This is a classic, it hasn't aged particularly well through the years, but it's still a classic. The first good football game on the Spectrum and still one of the most charming, although as I said earlier, the years haven't been kind to it. It still holds up pretty well gameplay wise, you can move with the ball well but passing is down to a bit of hit and hope luck and I always found it best to score from long distance, also manual goalie could albe a problem for some. But it always was one of the better football games on the Spectrum against the 90% of bad ones, so if have to play a good football game on the Spectrum, play this along with Emlyn Hughes.

The first game I picked for my parents to buy for the Speccy, because it was football, obviously. I loved this game back in the day and spent many hours on it but now it's very primitive and definitely shows its age, but I can't give it less than 4 because of the nostalgia it brings me.

It's hard to believe nowadays that in 1984 you could play a football videogame with more-than-decent graphics, a nice intro tune, choose the length of each half, the difficulty level, the team names and colours, a single match or cup mode and have a nice gaming time vs computer or with mates with the cool 2-players option in only 48K of memory. Corners, shoots, dribbles, long or short passes, ... all this was possible.

And it was made by Jon Ritman and Chris Clarke for Ocean. Before it, only Football Manager by Kevin Toms was the only footy game for the Spectrum that stood out, but it was an strategy game. You could play a real game in Match Day. And it was a great success since it came out.

It hasn't aged very well, but it has a place in Spectrum history as the first great football game. In 1985, International Match Day was released as an adapted version for the 128K model and including countries. But its true sequel, Match Day II, came out three years later and was quite an enhanced version.