Elite
£9.99/£14.99

Elite releasing a football game? Nah, it must be a dream. Hang on! It's true!! World Championship Soccer is here, many moons after the World Cup finished, but what the hell. And, after reviewing six billion footy games in the last few months, I've run out of soccer jokes. So, this is what the game's all about.

Choose from three options at the beginning: World Cup competition (one-player against computer, no team selection), a one-player (against computer and choose your team) or a two-player game. A world map pops up then and from here, using the pointer, you can pick, from 24 countries, which teams you want to play against. Having made a choice you continue by picking individual players for your team.

The individual attributes of each team member are shown: choose eleven players and hit the pitch. There are six groups of four countries all playing for a place in the final game. Only the top two teams in each group will quality for the next round, along with four of the remaining third placed teams. Unlike most other football games the time for each match isn't changeable: like real footy matches the game is played for 45 minutes (computer time). You view from above and the player under control is marked by a pointer.

All the usual features such as corner kicks, throw-ins and goal kicks are here, but despite some good options, the graphics leave a lot to be desired. Okay - lots of spritey guys running up and down a pitch are never particularly spectacular, but these look like deformed dwarves. Also, the loss of choice to change the game timer is a bad move: the game doesn't actually last for 90 minutes, but at times it seems like it!

MARK [58%]

The game takes ages to load. And then there are all the options to wade through! It's a pity that, after all that, the actual soccer sim isn't up to much. Large, awkward moving players jolt about the screen, and scoring goals is dead easy as opposing players don't appear too keen on tackling. What makes World Championship Soccer better than other soccer games about at the moment is its league system. You can work your way to the top in true World Cup style and have full control over the team you play and the players you put in it. The inclusion of a bit of humour in this was an excellent idea. When you make a player kick, his leg gets contorted into some strange positions. Yoga on the football field! World Championship Soccer is another football game to stick on top of the ever increasing pile. Nothing really new to offer at all.
NICK [50%]

Elite
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

We've had Kick Off, we've had Kick Off 2, and by golly if we haven't had Gazza 2, er, too. Well, now here comes Championship Soccer, a Sega arcade conversion that's looking to beat them all into touch as the fastest, simplest, most playable overhead-view footy game ever. Its a 1/2-player game, and I may as well tackle each in alphabetical order, so it's, er, 1-player mode to kick off with first.

You're competing in a full 'World Championship' (ie World Cup) tournament, so if you're confident enough to skip the oddly named practice game (Test 'match' indeed) it's time to choose the country you want to represent. Up pops in a snazzy world map and as you whizz about testing your geography (so that's where Cameroon is!) you can call up a teams statistics. These are a list of the team's strengths - Speed, Skill, Defence and Keeper - measured on a scale from 1 to 5. Settle on a country and you have to pick the players (these also have a list of statistics, this time based on Speed, Tackling Strength, Kicking Strength and Accuracy). Weed out the weeds and put your final 11 into a set 4-4-2 pattern.

ONTO THE GAME PROPER...

And the first thing that strikes you is the kick-off - it's just a case of first player to the ball! Boot this away and you'll notice the screen scrolls to keep up with it, not the players, so frequently you'll be running like mad without actually being in view (mind you, there's a handy scanner at the side of the pitch to give you the full picture). The Speccy decides which player you control, working on the 'nearest to the ball' principle, but as usual causing much cursing since in tight spots the player it wants you to be and the one you want to control are inevitably different. The controlled player is highlighted with an arrow, and as you rush all over the place the rest of the teams swarm about as their patterns dictate, although once the action gets going you'll soon have no idea who's in which position. Bang go all the impressive player statistics, but who said this was a serious game? Fast and fun is the order of the day, with things like throw-ins and corners dropped in favour of the ball ricocheting back off the touch-lines (as if you're playing in a box)

The Speccy has some mean tactics, its men jittering towards the ball like guided missiles, and using the three types of kick to full effect. A nice touch is the way you always kick towards the opponents goal, but I found the best way to win was not to bother about kicking at all, and just dribble the ball into the net. As long as you keep zig-zagging, the Speccy's players can't manoeuvre to tackle you, and it guarantees victory by at least 20 goals!

Of course, this doesn't really matter, as the only reason anyone buys Kick Off-type games is to beat their friends at them 10-0. Pick your teams, no fouls, no World Championship competition, just Spec-chum against Spec-chum! The only problem is, there's no Redefine Keys option and the keys you've got are all on the top row (1-5 for player 2, 6-0 for player 1), a hideously squashed arrangement that means you'll either have to wedge some card down the middle of the keyboard, or sellotape your unused fingers out of the way.

WELL, IT'S GREEN, INNIT?

The other only problem is the presentation. Apart from some awful intro music and a neat whistle effect, there's no sound, and while the graphics are several steps up from the Kick Off doldrums, they can still get somewhat confusing as the pitch flits by. As everything's monochrome green, one team has white shirts and dark hair, and vice versa. Unfortunately, there are no graphics to show the light haired players kicking, or their goalie (they use the dark-haired versions instead), so if you're at the opponents goal, blocked by the defenders, it seems you're being hacked at by traitors from your own team!

Graphical glitches aside (you can always provide suitable sounds yourself), WCS ain't a bad little footie game at all. Not quite up to Gazza 2 standards, but playable nonetheless (multiplied by 10 in 2-player mode). A very strong return for Elite, back at last from the 16-bit wilderness. Three cheers and a hearty hurrah!