Amsoccer

Copyright : Computersmith | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

The question you have to ask yourself when reading reviews of football games is, do you really need an introduction to one of the most famous sports in the world? my guess would be nope, you don?t.

Amsoccer is simply a computerised version of the old field game in which you and your squad try to get the ball from your end of the field to the other and wack it in the net. Simple really.

Graphics

Considering its age its no surprise that this game looks very basic but its fairly colorful and you cant help feel a little bit of nostalgia by looking at it. There are however some fairly horrible graphical glitches, the camera will pan left and right depending on were the ball lands but it seems to drag itself rather than smoothly move left or right. Even though there are very few players per team the game also seems quite slow, it doesn?t slow down at any one point, its just slow to begin with and remains that way throughout.

Things do look rather chunky, obviously because it was created in low resolution and fills about 90% of your screen. There are some nice touches though, I like the little banners that are displayed in the lower half of the screen and the score board that sits above each of the nets for instance. So its not a complete disaster, given its age I think we can forgive it.

Sound

Amsoccer really reminds you of the old arcade classics, when games only cost 10 pence per go and you would spend most of your afternoon in the arcade rooms with a few friends. The soundtrack at the start of the game certainly brings back those memories, sure its basic but the game was written in 1986 so we couldn?t really expect Computersmith to do a much better job. The in-game sounds are very much the same as other games in this time period, an occasional blip as the ball is handed from player to player and a roar of the crowd if and when you score a goal. Its hardly award winning but at least its something.

Gameplay

You play the Amstrad Rovers and you play against I.J.K United in this basic and very simple football game, bare in mind it was written in 1986 and is one of the first football games to make use of playable characters rather than text based management simulations.

You dont get to control a huge team of players, you cant even select a player to control as the game seems to do all this for you depending on were the ball is at any one point in the game. For example you could be midfield one minute and controlling the goalkeeper the next. This does take time to get used to and I?m sure it did back in 1986.

Though its not going to win any awards, it was a very nice attempt and one that probably did get one or two re-loads when it was released, today however it does appear to have aged very badly and probably wont get past 10 minutes of play time before being erased. For nostalgia its a winner, for replay value its not going to get very far.