Hall of Fame: Sensible Soccer Series
It’s that time again people, it’s time for us to celebrate another entry into the GodisaGeek.com Hall of Fame.
We all know that video games are knocking at the door to be entered into our prestigious Hall of Fame but only a single game per month can actually make it. This month, the honour goes to…
The Sensible Soccer Series!
If you ask people which football game they were playing in the early nineties, a good deal of them would day the Sensible Soccer series of games; then they’d go on and on about it for the next thirty minutes. Developed by Sensible Software, the much-loved footie series has given us many games over the years, ebbing and flowing in popularity with the tides of change, but it’s maintained its cult following all the way up until the present day. That’s why it’s having the honour of being entered into the GodisaGeek.com Hall of Fame.
Adam talks about the obvious, but hilariously fun insanity of Sensible Soccer…
Adam Cook: Sensible Soccer is a ridiculous game. Not normally the kind of thing you’d expect to see in a piece of work dedicated to the subject’s brilliance, admittedly, but it’s the ridiculous-nature of the game that makes it so brilliant. The fact that almost any shot can have the arc of a banana; that insane swing at the last minute that makes any goalkeeper look ridiculous. The names of the players were memorable too; there was no way Sensi was licensing every player in the game.
However, there’s more to it than that, Sensi harks back to an age where games didn’t feel so hung on the visual fidelity, or even audio design. Hell, if the crowd cheered randomly at some point during the match, I felt satiated. No, back then all that mattered to me was fun. Sure, rose-tinted glasses can (and often do) colour how good a game was, but Sensible Soccer was one of those magnificent games that you’d lose an afternoon to. Bending shots all over the place, humongous passes from defence to attack, then an instant bending shot into the corner. Up yours, imaginary people who didn’t believe I’d win that match!
Fun though, something that sometimes takes a back seat when assessing a video game these days. People talk about narrative, audio, visuals, how long a game is and how the multiplayer worked, and I’m not saying those aren’t important, because they are, but back then all I cared about was how entertained I was. We’ve come a long, long way but Sensible Soccer is still bloody ace today, and I challenge anyone to get friends round for a game, and it not descend into hilarious, drunken tomfoolery.
It wasn’t realistic, but I don’t care, Sensi, I salute you for what you were, and are: Insane, unrealistic, but fun.
Robin talks about his partial conversion from Championship Manager to Sensible World of Soccer…
Robin Parker: I grew up as a Championship Manager child. Long before Eidos picked up the series, or the Collyer brothers left to form Sports Interactive, I was hooked on the game. So when the Sensible Software crew decided to add management elements to their already-successful arcade football title, Sensible Soccer, you could say that I was a little dubious.
However, Sensible World of Soccer turned out to be the complete package. Want to just manage a team? Fine. Want to just play the frantic top-down football matches? That is fine too. Want to combine both and be a kind of player-manager? You could do both. The game may have been simple – with only eight directions of movement and two action buttons – but the game could still produce some dramatic matches and spectacular goals.
The title also included a full, and authentic, roster of players, for teams from leagues all over the world. You might be happily winning matches in the Premiership for seven years, only to suddenly decide you want to take on the challenge of managing Maccabi Haifa in Israel – just for the challenge of it. That was the strange world of SWOS. It didn’t take itself as seriously as Championship Manager or Premier Manager; it was just a lot of fun, and instantly accessible.
