Overview

The 80s were kind of a dark time for soccer games on consoles as the real innovations, real developments, and the real fun in soccer gaming was to be found on personal computer systems like the C64, PC, Atari ST and so forth. That said, there were still many good (if not great) console soccer games on the consoles of the 80s. One such title is 1988’s Goal!. Developed by Jaleco, who would later go on to make NES and SNES sequels.

Graphics

Yuck.

Goal! is a game that hasn’t aged well in the visuals department, but then again it is almost 17 years old. I think the main problem, for me anyway, isn’t the overhead view (not nearly zoomed out as far as Kick Off, and also, oddly at a diagonal angle), nor the player models (simple, no variation, two tone colour kits), nor is it the very basic animations. The main reason this game is so ugly is the godawful pitch graphics, with puke-green stripes, red sidelines and odd orange 6 yard boxes…….Okay, so I’m exaggerating a bit with the whole ‘ugliness’ thing, Goal! doesn’t look that bad for an NES game, it’s just perplexing as to why they made the pitches so ugly. And what’s with the orange?

On the positive side there are some nicely animated cut-scenes for goal celebrations, offside calls and fouls. I also really like the fact that the squad/jersey number of the player you are controlling shows up in the top right of the screen (next to the time). Oddly, at half-time you’re treated to a show by cheerleaders (and I mean ‘actual’ cheerleaders, not Kleberson).

Sound

Commentary by John Motson and Andy Gray is fantastic. It’s amazing how much they managed to pack into this 8-bit cart and……okay, I’m kidding. It’s an NES game so there isn’t much in the way of sound except for crappy menu music and equally crappy music during the matches. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an option to turn the music off (save for hitting mute on my stereo).

Options

Gameplay options are a 16 team World Cup, an 8 team knock-out style tournament, and a pretty neat ‘shootout’ mode. The international teams included in the World Cup mode are as follows; Argentina, Holland, Denmark, USA, England, Italy, Japan, France, Brazil, Spain, Algeria, U.S.S.R. (it’s 1988, remember!), West Germany (ditto), Poland, Belgium and Uruguay.

For the tournament mode Goal! features fictitious club teams. These have been (were?!) localized in the American version of Goal! to be North American teams based out of eight major U.S. cities. I thought this little localization touch was pretty neat.

The shootout mode is pretty unique in that you don’t play a penalty shootout, rather you play a mini drill where it’s two user controlled players versus two CPU controlled defenders and a goalie. The object is to make a pass from one player to another and then try to score.

Gameplay

I’m kind of ashamed to admit that, prior to this review, I had never before played Goal!. The only soccer game I’d previously played on the NES was Nintendo World Cup - though this probably has more to do with the fact that I never owned an NES growing up, rather than the relative dearth of soccer titles on Nintendo’s fledgling system.

That said, it didn’t take me long, once I got past the part-orange, part-puke green pitches, to start having quite a bit of fun. The controls are fairly simple, on offence A is pass, B is shoot, the d-pad controls movement. Passing is directly to a teammate if he’s in the direction you’re facing, and into space if he’s not.

When you’re on defense, B is a slide tackle and A switches control to the player nearest the ball. Manual control of the goalies is different than in the magnificent Ice Hockey (NES) as you only control the goalie when the ball approaches the 6 yard box. When the ball is in range, the d-pad moves the keeper from left to right and B makes him dive. On both sides of the ball control is fairly crisp and lag or buffering of commands is kept to a minimum.

Once the whistle blows Goal! plays a pretty damn solid game of football. You can mix up short passing (B button) with long hoofs up the field using the shoot button. Dribbling is done well (the ball sticks to your feet) and it’s not hard to dribble past the odd man or two before you’re tackled. That said, single player wears out its welcome fairly quickly due to the low difficulty level. Within an hour I’d sussed out the controls, in particular the slide tackles which can take a bit of practice to get right. By mixing up short passing to get near the CPU’s 18 yard box and then zig-zag dribbling past the remaining defender (or two) you can get one on one with the fairly shite/Massimo Taibi-like keepers to score. Defending is also pretty easy and soon the (non-changeable) 10 minute halves seem 5 minutes too long as I was scoring 5-6 goals a game.

Where Goal! does shine, however, is in the multiplayer. Like in Ice Hockey, the fact that you control the keeper adds another element of skill to an already balanced game. There are no 360 spins or other such ‘skill’ moves and no automatic/cheap goals and as a result you have a multiplayer title that’s quite a bit of fun.

Longevity/Replay Value

The single player can be conquered in a single sitting or two, but the multiplayer is where this game shines. Unfortunately, finding someone to sit down and play a 17 year old NES game with you can be a bit of a challenge.

Overall

Goal! is by no means a ground breaking game. In the pantheon of 80s console football games it stands somewhere near the top, but then again the 80s were the dark ages of console soccer. Still, the game provides a surprising degree of fun (especially in multiplayer) and for those who played it when it first came out I’m sure it’s nice trip down memory lane.

But what’s up with the orange 6 yard box?

Lavan Chandran

4/17/2005

Screenshots taken by me.