Overview

When this long, long awaited sequel to Renegade’s Sensible World of Soccer was announced I believe I (in a moment of sheer fanboyism) began to hyperventilate with excitement and optimism. Sensible Soccer, one of the greatest soccer games of all time, was getting a current gen remake! However, after checking out the initial screenshots (which looked very different from the original) my excitement was definitely dampened and my expectations definitely tempered. After playing SS2K6 for a solid week I definitely think a tempering of expectations is the key to enjoying this budget priced title. If you’re expecting the original S.W.O.S. with a shiny new coat of paint you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re looking for an arcade-style football game that harkens back to games of yesteryear I think you’ll be satisfied.

Graphics 70

The first thing you notice when you run out onto the pitch in SS2K6 is the camera angle. True to the original SWOS the view is up and down the pitch (rather than side to side), however, unlike the original the camera is lower and slightly more zoomed in. In the original game, at any one time you could easily see about a 1/3rd of the length of the pitch and almost all the width. In the 2006 version, however, your view is more constrained.

Once the game kicks off, the second thing you notice is the pace – this game is quite a bit quicker and more frantic than the original Sensible Soccer. The camera does a good job of following the action, however, there are instances when possession changes hands (er…feet) in quick succession and this causes the camera to shake when re-centering rapidly. Thankfully this doesn’t occur too often, but when it does it can be mildly nauseating for a second.

As mentioned at the beginning of the review, Sensible Soccer 2006 features cell shaded, big-head player models. You don’t really get to appreciate the cell shading from the playable camera angle, however, you get a much closer look during the instant replays, goal celebrations, substitutions and referee interaction cut-scenes. During these close-ups it’s hard not to like these colourful, caricature-like players. Heads are enormous and while there isn’t any player likeness to the degree of a FIFA or Winning Eleven you can still identify a few players by hair-style and basic facial features. The player bodies differ mainly in height, body build and boot colours, but again, you only really notice the differences during cut-scenes/close-ups.

Player kits are fairly simple and since the game is not licensed (it is, after all, a budget title) there are no sponsors on the kits. There are, however, a fair number of unlockable shorts and shirts if you’re into that thing.

For a game that’s fast-paced and fairly simple with respect to gameplay, Sensible Soccer 2006 features an impressive array of different animations. Outfield players have neat animations for sliding tackles, fouls, headers, lunges for the ball and many others, and the transitions between them are very smooth. Unfortunately, animation transitions for the keepers are not so nice and there are a few times I’ve seen a shot on net and rather than see the keeper dive to save it, he simply teleports (skips some frames) to ‘appear’ with the ball in his hands to make the save. These skipped goalkeeper animations don’t occur all the time but when they do it’s particularly jarring since everything else is so smooth.

The game features a number of different stadium types (e.g. ‘Cauldron’, ‘Mid Industrial’, ‘Small Town’) which differ mainly in the form of pitch textures and the pitch-side details (such as the advertising hoardings and the stands). Matches can be played during the day or at night and weather effects are passable.

TV-style presentation is sparse, but decent where present. There are a fair number of goal celebration cut-scenes and the game does a good job of exhibiting genuine emotion in the players’ body language and faces. Likewise, cut-scenes for cards, substitutions and injuries are also well done. Unfortunately, there are no half-time or full-time highlites. Likewise, there are no real trophy celebration cut-scenes (just a screen telling you you’ve won and a picture of a trophy).

Sound 30

With respect to audio, Sensible Soccer 2006 starts out with a nifty remix of the ‘Goal Scoring Superstar Hero’ theme from S.W.O.S. and then…..well that’s about it. The game features NO COMMENTARY whatsoever (not even the odd “Gooooaaaaaal” shout) and the crowd sounds are a looped din and then a cheer for a goal.

Pretty damn sad.

Options 60

If there was one area of the original S.W.O.S. that really blew the competition out of the water (and even put today’s games to shame) it was the options. As I mentioned in my retro review, the original Sensible Soccer featured 146 different leagues/divisions (in the context of a career/manager mode) as well as a full slate of international teams and tournaments. Sensible Soccer 2006, however, fails to live up to the mammoth array of options provided by its illustrious predecessor.

The major modes of play in Sensible Soccer 2006 are Friendly Match, Pre-Set Competition, DIY Competition, and Custom Team. The Pre-Set Competitions include season play in either the First Division, Second Division, League Cup, FA Cup or Charity Shield (or equivalent) from the following nations;

There are also International Competitions including the World Cup, and the regional/continental championships for Asia, Europe, South America, North America, and Africa. The number of national teams per continent is as follows;

Europe – 16 Teams
Asia + Oceania – 16 Teams
Africa – 16 Teams
North America – 12 Teams
South America – 12 Teams

While this may seem impressive, it is important to note that for the club teams you’re simply playing a season and are NOT privy to any management options! The original S.W.O.S. was addictive as crack due to its phenomenal career/manager mode where you could bring a team up from a lower division and participate in an active transfer market with proper finances. All of this is absent from the 2006 version and this represents the game’s Achilles heel.

To try and compensate for this, the Custom Team mode allows you to create a team of nobodies, create their kits and player likenesses, and then enter them into competitions. Each victory earns you progression points you can spend on your squad. While this is a somewhat interesting mode, if you were to ask 10 soccer gamers whether they’d rather have a management/career mode like the original S.W.O.S or a Custom Team mode in Sensible Soccer 2006, I’d wager all ten would choose the former.

The second biggest disappointment in the options department comes from the absence of an online mode! For a game that’s perfect for multiplayer this is one hell of a shame and while you can have up to 4 player multiplayer matches I can only imagine how much fun this would be online.

Since the game does not have an official license of any kind, it makes good use of pseudonames that are very easy to figure out. If you’re unable to identify England’s front pairing of ‘Riinay’ and ‘Owan’ you probably wouldn’t be able to appreciate an official license anyway. The same goes for the teams ‘Manchester Blue’ and ‘Manchester Red’. Of course, there is a robust game editor that allows you to change player, team and competition names as well as allow you to edit kits and player likenesses.

Tactical options are sparse - there are the expected number of different pre-set formations but no option for custom formations and no tactical options. Players are rated on a global 5 Star rating system with half-stars included.

The game also features a boat-load of unlockables for every competition in the game but most of these unlockables are crap. For example, if you win the Asian Continental championship you unlock…..get this…..a pair of ‘Tropical’ patterned shorts.

I kid you not.

As far as I can tell there is no way to unlock the original Sensible Soccer and I wonder if this was done intentionally by the developers since they knew everyone would just play THAT instead....I kid….I kid!

Gameplay 75

Like many games of yesteryear, the original Sensible World of Soccer featured a simple control scheme – joystick for movement and a single button for kick/tackle/header depending upon the context. Sensible Soccer 2006 adds a few more buttons to the control scheme but ensures that the overall controls are simple and intuitive.

On the PS2 the controls are as follows;

Left Analog – Player movement
Right Analog – Move keeper
X – Low kick
Circle – High kick
Triangle – Call for sub/Tactical Change
R1 – Speed burst

When I first read the controls I was pretty damn weary about the Speed Burst button fearing the game would become a FIFA 2000-like travesty where you hammer the speed burst button constantly. Fortunately, Kuju have incorporated the Speed Burst in an intelligent manner for an arcade game – it now works like a reservoir. Above each player is solid bar indicator that represents how much speed burst they have for the entire match. The more you press R1 with a given player the more his bar depletes and it does not fill up afterwards (except very slightly at half time)! I think this is a pretty neat idea and one that works well – you use the speed burst sparingly but it’s still effective. It also encourages you to use your three subs in each match.

The rest of the controls are intuitive as you can get. The analog stick moves you around and there is an arrow indicator underneath the player you’re controlling which shows which way you’re pointing. This indicator arrow also increases in length depending upon how long you hold down a kick button, working much like a power-bar indicator.

The X button performs a kick along the ground which becomes an automatic, straight-to-feet pass when close to a teammate and a pass into space or a shot otherwise. The high kick, performed by the circle button, is used for long distance passing as well as shooting. Just as in the original S.W.O.S. you can use ‘aftertouch’ (by pushing the analog stick in a direction after the ball is kicked) to add serve, curl and spin to the ball. This aftertouch is grossly exaggerated allowing you to perform crazy banana shots, swerving crosses, and cross-field balls that would make Zidane blush (before he head-butts you).

On the defensive side of things, the circle button performs a slide tackle which is fairly risky at the best of times. The other way to tackle is to simply run into the ball and carry it off an opposing player. Problems arise, however, in that you can run behind a player and literally RUN HIM OVER to take the ball! Tense midfield battles consist of you and the computer exchanging ‘tackles’ until you manage to get the ball away.

Player switching is entirely automatic and pretty bone-headed which results in some more frustrating moments which I’ll discuss later.

Ball physics are largely unscripted. You can play the ball into space and have it bounce around the box in a random manner and it never feels like the ball or the players are on ‘rails. It must be noted, however, that the ball is now truly glued to your feet which makes the dribbling much easier than in the Amiga version of S.W.O.S. and more akin to the MegaDrive/Genesis version. This definitely takes away from some of the skill required to play the game (intricate dribbling had to be mastered in the original – though not to the same extent as in Kick Off 2) but this suits the faster pace.

Sensible Soccer 2006’s AI is fairly basic for a simple arcade soccer title. There is no variation in playing styles between teams (the only noticeable difference between Brazil and Indonesia is that Brazil’s players are faster and can ‘tackle’ better). Teammate AI varies from acceptable to downright stupid – on rare occasions players will refuse to move into open positions, while more often there have been instances where the ball has been literally 5 yards away from my keeper and he refused to acknowledge it.

Okay, so that’s the nitty gritty of the Sensible Soccer 2006, but how does it play? Well, first off it does NOT play quite like the original Sensible Soccer. This game is much faster, with more frantic action in the middle of the pitch. In fact, the increased pace makes it seem more like a mix between the original Sensible Soccer and Kick Off 2.

The ‘run over’ tackling means that you’re rarely given a chance to dwell on the ball. The automatic player switching can become one hell of an annoyance, especially when the ball lands right between two of your players and the computer can’t decide which player it wants you to control and ends up putting you in control of neither!!!

However, despite these two significant problems, Sensible Soccer 2006 is still fun because it sticks to the basics of football – pass and move. Yes, if you dwell on the ball for longer than a second you get flattened, but that means that you have to play intricate one touch passing or switch the field with a long, manually aimed, cross-field pass. There are also no 360° spins or ‘skill’ moves that cheapen the gameplay. The action is constantly end to end and don’t expect any methodical backwards passing or probing – it’s all about getting the ball and making a beeline for the goal. The fact that the shooting is entirely manual and dependant upon you putting a generous amount of swerve/curl on the ball means that there is a definite sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you put the ball in the back of the net. The ball physics also mean that there are a wide variety of goals that can be scored – from a simple 5 yard tap-ins, to an impossible 40 yard curler into the top corner!

Sure its not tactical, its not chock full of depth, but its also not Winning Eleven – it’s an unabashed arcade soccer title and I think it succeeds with its simple gameplay.

Replay Value 55

As I’ve stated before (repeatedly), the original S.W.O.S. had immense replay value because of its fantastic manager/career mode. Without a similar gameplay option, Sensible Soccer 2006 suffers – there isn’t enough depth in the simple gameplay to justify playing through numerous seasons in different leagues with no transfer or management options (and only to unlock crap like shorts, shoes or balls). An online mode would have mitigated this loss but sadly Kuju missed the boat on this mode too.

Overall 65

I’ve had a lot of fun playing Sensible Soccer 2006 over the past week and a bit. It’s definitely a fun game that’s easy to pick up and play, but without career or online modes there just isn’t enough to keep me playing in the long-run. As a budget title it’s perhaps worth a shot if you’re bored with the FIFAs and Winning Elevens of this world but don’t expect to be playing it for too long.

It’s also worth reiterating that this definitely isn’t the original S.W.O.S. with some new graphical polish and those expecting a friendly trip down memory lane would be better served by checking out the original via emulator or even cell phone.

Lavan Chandran
7/15/2006

Screenshots from www.codemasters.co.uk & www.gamespot.com