How good was…Sensible Soccer
Cast your mind back to the early 90s (if you can!). The words ‘good’, ‘football’ and ‘computer game’ had rarely been uttered in the same sentence. So many had tried, but for all the valiant efforts of titles such as ‘Goal’, ‘Italia 90’ and ‘Kick-Off’, there wasn’t a game that captured the essence of the beautiful game whilst still being fun to play. Along came Sensible Soccer and the world became a better place. Here was a game that was everything you want from football; fast, frenetic and most importantly, fun. Ok, so the graphics don’t look like much now and the breakneck pace may frighten off your casual PES or FIFA player but for many years of my childhood, Sensible Soccer was (and probably still is) king.
Sensible Soccer is a perfect example of that old axiom “Easy to learn, hard to master”. Top down 2D football, on first play the game appears to rattle along at whirlwind speed. The pitch resembles a pinball machine as the ball is pinged from one end to the other with the only let-up being the whistle at half and full-time. However, as you get to grips with the nuances of the beautifully simple controls (one button for all types of pass, shot or header) you find that you can construct some exquisite passages of play. The control system that at first seems straightforward and limiting suddenly becomes effortless and liberating, none of this twiddling the stick nonsense of the current day. Furthermore, the ability to swerve the ball (‘after-touch’) was a brilliantly intuitive piece of control design that I haven’t seen bettered since in football games.
It wasn’t until the game’s 1994 incarnation, Sensible World of Soccer (SWOS), that the series really came into its own as the football game du jour. Introducing a management element into proceedings, SWOS was truly revolutionary. The squad and transfer management system is simple but implemented in a way that is incredibly satisfying and addictive. It doesn’t overload you with stats a la Football Manager but gives you enough control to feel like your decisions are significant. Any game that allows me to take Hibs to the European Cup Final, sign Jean-Pierre Papin and Phil Babb, whilst still having Michael O’Neill and Kevin McAllister on the wings has to be a classic, right? Hmm, maybe it’s just me.
So, it doesn’t have the sheen of FIFA or the depth of PES, but Sensible Soccer has, without doubt, given me more enjoyment than any football game before or since. The sight of the menu screen or the sound of the soundtrack is enough to turn me into a nostalgic ball of mush. In doing ‘research’ for this feature, I discovered that, in 2007, Sensible Soccer made it on to a list of the ten most important video games of all time, compiled by Professor Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University. Take that EA!
I was just too rubbish at it to spend any time with it to be honest. I played Kick Off 3 for a while, which also had a management bit, but my 8 year old brain thought that when a player was described as “rank” it meant he was er… “top rank”? So I signed the worst players possible in the game and kept getting beat.
The hours I dumped onto this wonderful game. So rewarding, really made you work, and goals were worth it. if I recall, wasn’t this the game with a career mode, where you could play as one player all season, before hanging up your boots? Worship at the altar of playability.
With regards to my computer-gaming youth, two games occupied the majority of my time: Sensible Soccer (or more accurately, SWOS), and Championship Manager. It is no exaggeration to state that I’ve given weeks, possibly even months of my life, to these games!
The sentiment illustrated within this article for the former is something which resonates with me, also. In terms of pure playability I will put my neck on the line by saying that, in this regard, it has never been surpassed – even by PES.
Sensi, as it was endearingly-termed in my household, was a game for a generation, and whenever articles/discussions like this come along, I can’t help but recall evenings spent watching Gamesmaster and listeneing to Dominic Diamond!
However, despite my warm memories, the game itself belongs in the past. I remember buying an Amiga 600 from eBay in 2001, tracking down a copy of SWOS, and attempting to re-create the magic. I’m afraid to say the magic had gone – past, if you like. I also felt that Jon Hare, the co-creator of Sensible Soccer, damaged the brand (and my memories), somewhat, with the different reincarnations of Sensible Soccer which surfaced in the early noughties – I remember the SNES version being truly awful.
Still, this tinkering was not enough to destroy what I already knew to be true: Sensible Soccer was, for its time, the greatest football computer game of them all.