Thursday, August 13, 2020

Super Nintendo #1: Super Soccer


Developer: Human Entertainment
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: May 1992
I love these busy SNES boxes. Look at all those dots and rectangles!

So the suggestions are in about what I should write about and I got a lot of good outlandish requests. I will try to get to them all eventually, but my brother comes first so I am taking his suggestion and writing about some SNES sports games. Super Soccer was one of the initial twenty games when Super Nintendo made its way onto Nintendo Switch Online, and it was almost certainly the one people were least excited about. With games like Super Mario World and Super Metroid to play that definitely makes sense. The sports titles felt a bit like filler. Super Soccer, though, is a good game that shouldn’t be ignored.
Suddenly I have the urge to play Game Boy. Okay maybe that's just how I always feel.

There’s just something pleasant about playing Super Nintendo. There’s a reason Super Nintendo’s style gets copied so often in retro inspired titles. Super Soccer might be a bit dull if not for the great presentation. The music is fun and the graphics are colorful with a nifty pseudo-3D scrolling effect that makes the Super Nintendo look even more powerful than it actually is. It’s a very simply arcade style soccer game that is perfect for people like me who don’t really know that much about soccer. It’s basically passing and shooting in this one. You can even choose to have your goalkeeper be controlled by the computer. The simplicity keeps things moving quickly which is good because the game is fairly lengthy. To beat it you have to win against every team plus an extra difficult Nintendo team. I had trouble enough with my first match so I could only imagine playing it enough to get good at it. It is certainly the type of game that you would rent because there weren’t that many options in the middle of 1992 and then end up having it take up your weekend. I am surprised that never happened to me.

Of course all this soccer can get tedious after a while, so the game is not perfect. The simplicity means that every match is going to play similarly. Also the odd perspective makes it hard to see down the field sometimes, especially when you are the one running toward the screen. I also don’t like that the goalkeepers wear different colors than the rest of of the players. That is probably realistic, but it makes it hard to tell which goal I am supposed to be shooting at. I had to wait for the other team to take the first shot. I was also disappointed by the halftime show. I love halftime in these old games, but this one just had the players slowly walking off and then the players slowly walking back on. This is the 16-bit era people! You can do so much more. At least show the excited crowd.

Still I had fun with this one and it is safely going into my green section. I am putting it right below Pinball at number 19 which isn’t bad for my first SNES game. I know the console has its clunkers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Super Nintendo ends up high on the quality list. If a generic sports title like this one can impress me than there’s no telling how much fun I am going to have.

1. Super Mario Odyssey
2. Galaga
3. Donkey Kong
4. Exodus: Ultima III
5. Pac-Mania
6. Wrecking Crew
7. Super Pac-Man
8. Pac-Man
9. Excitebike
10. Arc the Lad
11. Clu Clu Land
12. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX
13. Mickey’s Racing Adventure
14. Metro-Cross
15. Ice Climber
16. Gaplus
17. Dragon Spirit
18. Pinball (NES)
19. Super Soccer
20. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)
21. Red Sea Crossing
22. Baraduke
23. Tennis
24. Hogan’s Alley
25. Gamma-Attack
26. The Legend of “Valkyrie”
27. Galaxian
28. Evoland
29. Cosmic Commuter
30. Hot Pixel
31. Wild Gunman
32. Defunct
33. Gyruss (2600)
34. Looney Tunes Racing
35. Squidlit
36. Baseball
37. Birthday Mania
38. Bad Street Brawler
39. Burly Men at Sea
40. X-Men (HyperScan)
41. My Name is Mayo
42. Marvel Heroes
43. Ben 10

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