Reviews

For a brief few months, this was probably the best, non-management at least, football game for the Spectrum and, looking through rose-tinted spectacles, allowed you to live out your dreams as a football star on the screen.

That said, it was only by virtue of being the best of a poor bunch; the graphics were rather limited, being built up out of exact character squares, and much of the play - throw-ins, corners, and the goalkeeper entirely - were automated, limiting your skills to running, shooting and occasionally passing.

The game had essentially had its day when the superior, albeit not without flaws of its own, Match Day appeared. However, that didn't stop US Gold re-badging it as World Cup Carnival a couple of years later for one of the most cynical marketing cash-ins in the Spectrum's history.

This scummy game blighted my youth. For my 10th birthday in 1984, my parents finally agreed to let me have a full priced game. So I choose this. Cos its football, innit. Had to be better than TLL.

The game is abysmal. Truly. The goalie and throwins are all automated, all you get to do is run. The computer is dim and runs straight at the goal; its just hard coded to jump a bit to the side after kickoff. The only interesting point to the game is that the crowd figures are unique.

I tried to hype it up to my friends at my party. But there was the sinking feeling that I knew I'd been sold a baddun. Should have got TLL instead.

The real kicker is that it was re-released two years later at greater price still to cash in on the 1986 world cup.

1984 Artic Computing (UK)
by Donald J. Campbell and JJC

Probaby one of the worse soccer games ever written for the ZX Spectrum.
Awful gameplay, bad game design, incredibly predictable player movements.

Here's my tip on how to score:
Forget about passing the ball to your team, no need for that, just run, zig-zag a bit and there you are, one on one with the goal keeper, now just move away a bit from him, stay in a straight line to the goal and shoot! GOAL! There you go!
Now repeat this all over again and try to score as many goals as you can within time limit.

I must admit I played it a lot in the early days and It's part of my Spectrum games memories, so I'll rate it with a 2 just for old times sake.

In spite of all the impopularity and bad press about this game , I must admit that I used to have good fun playing it ... am I a soccer freak ?? well , maybe.

One of the first soccer games for the Spectrum, WCF was not one of the best ones to begin with. It can't even be compared with the old and venerable Match Day, which came out the same year: featureless graphics littered with attribute clash, slow and jerky movement, irritating sound, absolutely no sense of involvement for the player put Artic's WCF at the lowest ranks of Spectrum gaming history.

To my knowledge (which isn't good but we'll run with it) this was one of the very first soccer games to be released...what I definately know is this was a game I had as a kid...not that it was really that relevant but tough I mentioned it anyway.

To be kind while it was still nice to play soccer on your Spectrum it just wasn't that great. It was just far too easy to score a goal if you used the infamous zig zag pattern versus the world's most clumsiest goalkeeper in all existence. Also the player sprites are badly drawn and suffer from some of the worse cases of attribute clash ever. Finally the music (a series of football chants such as "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "You'll Never Walk Alone") will drive you batty and leave you screaming for mercy in no time at all. Luckily you can turn the music off...this is the closest thing to Heaven.

It really hasn't aged well at all and it won't take you long to realise you are far better off playing Match Day instead...but still it was the first, or one of, so I guess it has its place in history...and you thank US Gold for that.

by Donald J. Campbell, JJC
World Cup Football, the game that manages to capture football in all its sheer uglyness, and in which your movable player becomes cyan on green making it even more exciting.
1/5

A horrendous football game this, the colour clash is terrible and the music is dreadful while the gameplay itself is just laughable. And to think US Gold recycled this tripe for the 86 World Cup!