Overview

I remember when I bought the SNES in England on launch day. I had worked part-time for most of the summer and had saved up for the system plus a second controller and another game (Super Mario World came bundled). My mate James and I had decided that both Super Tennis and Super Soccer looked good so we decided that we’d each pick up one of the two and then trade. He picked Super Tennis (still the best tennis game ever – I’m serious) and I, unfortunately, picked Super Soccer. Still, despite the fact that Super Soccer couldn’t hold a candle to Super Tennis in the gameplay stakes I still played it to death and it’s still a game that holds a particularly nostalgic place in my heart as it was my first real shot at console soccer.

Anyway, enough of my Halverson-like ramblings, Super Soccer is ultimately a very average soccer title that doesn’t stand the test of time too well.

Graphics

On a quick glance at the screenshots Super Soccer doesn’t look that bad; the graphics look fairly crisp with nice bright colors, and you can see the crowds with advertising hoardings surrounding the pitch (which itself looks fairly nice). Unfortunately, you’ll also notice that the players all look like short pudgy Maradonans (that’s pre-gastric stapling lard-ass Maradonna). In motion the players look even worse with a tiny library of poor animations (the volley animation is hilariously bad) and awkward transitions between them. Tragically, the only decent animation in the game is for the horrific body check-style tackles that are part and parcel of play. The game gets a few further strikes with the ugly stick with its Foosball-like group animations – any time you perform an action with an individual player, all his teammates in the same line perform the same motion in unison. Very bizarre.

One aspect of the visuals that Super Soccer does well is the small touches like the Penguin-like ref making an appearance to dish out a card and the stretcher being brought out for the poor injured player/Darren Anderton.

Sound

Not much here to talk about except for the wonderfully brutal sounding body check sounds made when you ‘tackle’ a player – it still makes me cringe every time I hear it.

Options

As an early 16-bit title the options are fairly thin with Exhibition and Tournament being the two main modes. The game features 16 International teams with 16 players in each squad. The teams are rated in terms of Attack, Defence, and Running (with individual players rated the same way). Super Soccer doesn’t feature a license and though most of the players are entirely fictional, there are a few players that are based on real-life stars. Argentina’s #7 named ‘Diego’ is clearly based on Diego Maradonna and is undoubtedly the best player in the game. Likewise Cameroon’s star striker ‘Roger’ is based on Roger Milla.

When you finally win the International Tournament you get to play against the Nintendo All Stars who all have juiced up stats.

Tactical options are bare but there are a number of impressive formations that you can pick. A 2-3-5 (yeah, you read that right) anyone? Sven?

Gameplay

Controls in Super Soccer are your standard fare; B is High Shot/High Pass into space, A is a Low Shot/Low Pass into space, Y passes to the highlighted receiver, and the shoulder buttons toggle between highlighted teammates. On defense, A & B perform a slide tackle, while Y is the infamous ‘shoulder barge’/assault without a weapon.

Super Soccer deserves some props for its mildly unscripted ball physics, with respect to the fact that you can pass the ball into space and try to lead a pass receiver. Actually, on offence Super Soccer does quite a few things right and there’s a wide variety of goals that can be scored from low shots into the opposite corner from inside the box to 25 yard rockets into the top corner. Another thing that Super Soccer does brilliantly is that you always get a sense that the best players in the game are just that, the best players. When ‘Diego’ gets the ball you can tell that his shots are far more accurate and he’s always a step ahead of the opposition. Likewise for Germany’s ‘Rudi’ (Rudi Voller). The best example of this, though, has to be Ireland’s almost invincible keeper; ‘Riley’ (who I think is based on Packie Bonner but I’m not sure).

Unfortunately, all the good stuff falls apart the moment you beat a defender and then have the shit elbowed out of you!! Of course, when the CPU performs this common ‘tackle’ you realize that you can get away with it too and suddenly you have a new meaning to the term ‘midfield battle’! Not only does this feel cheap, it’s pretty damn skill-less and the referees call these fouls on very rare and very random occasions – you and your opponent could trade 3 or 4 such elbows and then suddenly the ref will call the next one and give you a red card!

Another problem arises from the fact there are a few ways to almost guarantee a goal which makes things cheap (especially multiplayer) and Super Soccer also suffers from an almost complete lack of build-up play it’s always end to end with one pass from a defender to a midfielder, from the midfielder to the forward, and then a goal.

Longevity/Replay Value

I remember playing Super Soccer quite a bit when I first got it but playing it now I can’t imagine why….

Overall

I can think of three reasons why Super Soccer managed to garner a lot of my time when it came out; firstly it was a launch title, secondly it was a football game (so I have to play it!), and thirdly because it was released so soon after Italia 1990 and shared much of the charm of that tournament – at least for me it did. Unfortunately, more than ten years later on these factors no longer play a role and Super Soccer can only stand on the strength of it’s gameplay – in which case it falls flat on its face.