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Football Manager World Cup Edition

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Lorenzo has written 23 additional reviews

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Written by Lorenzo

November 9, 2001

Comments

In 1981, a man named Kevin Toms programmed a small game on a Tandy TRS80 , all by himself, and called it "Football Manager". It was, to my knowledge, the first sports management simulator ever, and a good one too. He converted it to run on a Spectrum 48k, and started selling it, with enormous success. He founded his company, Addictive, and year after year he released more Football Management simulations... until 1990, when he came out with "Football Manager: World Cup Edition". This game was mercifully spared by the critics after his first release. Now, 11 years after, it' s time to bring some justice...


Graphics

Just take a look at the screenshots... There are only two off-game screens in the game, one with a few journalists and one in your team' s dressing room, and they' re both pretty horrible. During the match you can choose two types of view, a fixed view from the top and the in-game view. The first looks like it' s been drawn in 5 minutes by a kid with his crayons, but the second is even worse since the players have only 3 frames of animation, and the scrolling is slow and jerky.


Sound

Sound ? Is there any sound in this game ? Hang on, I' m sure I' ve heard some beeping noise, but can' t remember when and for what reason... dunno, maybe it' s just my imagination !


Gameplay

Just choose the national team you wish to control, and the game itself begins... you' ll have to qualify for the 1990 world cup, and then, possibly, try to become the new world champion. Before each game, you can set two factors, i.e. "ball bounce height" and "ball bounce percent". Don' t know what they mean. After that, you' ll have to talk to the journalists and to your players, giving stupid answers to even more stupid questions. Your team' s morale will then randomly increase or decrease, no matter what you actually say.


Then comes the so-called "tactics" section. Here you can choose your formation and give a few orders to your players. This is probably the best section of the game... too bad that none of the moves you make seem to have an effect on the game, and that even player names are the same with every national team, so if you' re in charge of, let' s say, Cuba, you' ll still play with Shilton and Lineker. Well, at least you can change those names, but mr. Toms could at least have included some more players...


...and then comes the match, with 22 sprites chasing the ball up and down the pitch. Forget positions, tactics, team orders: every single player will be chasing the ball, with the only exception of the goalies. The result is pretty humorous, but it looks more like a riot than a real football match. Full stop. There' s nothing more in this game, and so I guess it' s time for the...


Conclusion

If this was a PD game, it would deserve a 4/10. But this is a commercial game, and it was released at full price, even with its horrible graphics and nonexistent gameplay. I guess it was programmed in a week or so. In other words, I hereby declare "Football Manager: World Cup Edition" the worst ST game ever (IMHO, of course)! Good work, Kevin !





Score
  • Graphics: 2
  • Sound: 2
  • Gameplay: 2
  • Overall: 3

Review Comments

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Zone Warrior

February 12, 2023 by AtariCrypt

Once again, pesky aliens are giving us Earthlings lots of grief. We previously fought them off but they managed to pinch a time machine so are using that to alter history and wreak havoc by taking crucial hostages from each period in an attempt to halt their influence. From the invention of the wheel in prehistoric times to England's King Arthur uniting Britain! And where would any of us be today without Japan and its technical wizardry? Yep, we cannot allow this - the fight is on!

Son Shu Shi

March 21, 2021 by ST Graveyard

What an accomplishment this game is. Created with such a small team, the result is really amazing. The game oozes creative passion. While the gameplay is really well balanced, it is a tough cookie, very hard from time to time with its moments of sheer frustration. As of level 3, timing becomes key. You will need to practice and learn the levels to complete this game, there are so many bad guys on screen it sometimes gets a bit hard to take.

Blood Money

April 4, 2020 by Morcar

Graphically, it's also nice on the eyes with well-defined graphics and animation. You really get the feeling that the developers put some thought and love into the game. Remember what I said about the large levels? Well these are wonderful and are very different to each other, they also scroll fairly smooth in all four directions.

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