textfiles/games/REVIEWS/soccer.rev

 WORLD CLASS SOCCER: WORLD CUP 1990 EDITION

 If the phrase "Sick As A Parrot" holds meaning for you, then read on -- 
you are probably a true soccer fan who will appreciate the strategic 
aspects of this game. WORLD CLASS SOCCER (hereafter WCS) is a combination
of strategy game and action/arcade game that allows you to "manage" your 
chosen team prior to starting play. The game is joystick-driven for both
the Amiga and IBM versions but the IBM version also gives you the option
of keyboard control. (This review is based on the IBM version.)

 World Cup Soccer, or football as it is known to the majority of the world,
is coming to the USA in 1994. The WCS instruction manual is well-written
for its intended audience (the average, soccer-illiterate American) and is 
aimed at preparing the uninitiated for the 1994 World Cup. An excellent 
summary of the rules of soccer along with a humorous, tongue-in-cheek 
glossary of soccer terms are included with the manual -- e.g., "GOAL!: Your
team wants lots of these, but you don't want to give any away.  Shown here
in normal English spelling, it is normally pronounced by Latin American
Commentators as GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!!"  

 Play begins by choosing from one of the twenty-four international teams  
that competed in the 1990 World Cup that was held in Rome, Italy (and yes,
the USA's national team was represented). You may play against another 
opponent in match play with each player choosing a national team. In this
case, you should have two joysticks. Otherwise, you will end up sharing 
opposite ends of the keyboard under somewhat cramped conditions.  

 Alternatively, a single player may select to replay the entire 1990 World
Cup Tournament and try to finish higher than the chosen team finished in 
reality. To accomplish this, you must select the eleven player combination
and playing formation that you think will win each match on the way to the
World Cup.  
 
 There are eight different formations to select. You may choose to pack 
your front row with up to five attackers and play an all out aggressive 
game at the expense of your defense (the basic 2-3-5 formation). Or you may
choose the other extreme with a five-man defensive alignment and little
fire power up front (a 5-3-2 formation). Six other formations give you the
flexibility to mix and match according to the type of game you wish to play
with the players you've chosen.

 The twenty players on your team are shown in their preferred playing 
position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and attacker). Each player is
rated on a scale of one to five for four different attributes -- skill, 
speed, strength, and aggression. You must choose a balanced team of eleven
men who will best represent your coaching style and place them in positions
appropriate to their attributes.

 After you have completed the strategy phase of the game, it's time to 
"Play Ball!" The team that kicks off is chosen randomly and play is shown 
as an overhead view of the action in the immediate vicinity of the ball.  
Your team plays up the screen in the first half and the direction of play 
is reversed for the second half. The score and clock are shown at the 
bottom of the screen.  
   
 The player who is closest to the ball will have an arrow pointing at him
and by moving the joystick in any direction, you may control his movements 
as fast as his speed attribute allows. A player in possession of the ball
will have his name shown at the bottom of the screen. Should your team be
playing defense, the closest player to the ball may change often along with
the arrow. I found this bouncing around of the controlled player to be 
somewhat difficult to follow and gave up more than one goal by attempting
to control the wrong player (but then again, I am not of the Nintendo 
generation who may have little difficulty with this particular quirk)!
 
 Kicking and heading the ball are accomplished by pressing the fire button.
If you hold the fire button down longer, the power of the kick will 
increase up to the player's strength attribute. Lifting the ball off the 
ground can be caused by power shots or also by "chipping" (reversing the 
player's direction after pressing the power button). If the ball is in the 
air, your selected player can head the ball if he is close enough by 
pressing the fire button.
 
 A tackle (taking possession of the ball) can be made by confronting the 
opposing player head-on (the relative skill levels of the two players will 
determine the results). Another, but more hazardous way to tackle, is the
sliding tackle. This is made by pressing the fire button and causing the
selected player to slide in the direction he was running. If he comes close
enough to the ball, he may take possession -- or he also runs the risk of
fouling the offensive player.
 
 The goalkeeper can be controlled just like any other player if he is the 
selected player. You can also cause the goalkeeper to dive after the ball
by pressing fire and moving the joystick in the direction of the dive. Once
he has possession of the ball, the keeper will automatically kick the ball
upfield.
 
 Free kicks, following a foul, are made by aiming the kick with the joy-
stick and pressing the fire button for the desired power. Penalty kicks can also
be controlled in the same way or defended against by controlling the goal-
keeper's movements and dives.
 
 On the plus side, I enjoyed the strategic options of WCS. It is fun to 
participate in the World Cup Tournament and see if you can coach a team to
play beyond its actual finishing place. I also learned quite a bit about 
international soccer from the informative and occasionally humorous 
manual.
 
 On the negative side, however, I found the players difficult to control 
using either joystick or keyboard controls. WCS has no statistical capa-
bilities and records only the final score of the current round. You cannot
edit, create or trade players.  
 
 WCS comes packaged with one 3.5" disk and one 5.25" disk and requires 
512K of RAM to play. It runs on IBM PC/XT/AT and 100% compatibles; Tandy
1000 Series, 3000, 4000; CGA, EGA, VGA, or Tandy 16 Color; joystick is 
strongly recommended. The disks are uncopyable and no hard disk instal-
lation is possible.

 Sick As A Parrot? The glossary defines this phrase to mean: "You lost.
You played badly. You were beaten by a fluke. You scored in your own goal.
Mostly, you lost."

 WORLD CLASS SOCCER is published by U.S. Gold and distributed by Accolade.