RealSports Soccer

RealSports Soccer was one of the first sports titles Atari released for the 5200 console, offering a simplified simulation of a soccer match viewed from above. The player always controls one of eleven footballers, while the rest of the team moves automatically according to simple artificial intelligence, and tries to get the ball into the opponent's goal through passing and shooting. The game supports two players against each other as well as against the computer, which made it a popular choice for home tournaments among friends, who could switch between defense and attack depending on the situation on the pitch.

The controls use the Atari 5200's analog stick, thanks to which player movement is smoother than in the equivalent Atari 2600 game, though the strength and direction of passes remain fairly simple and limited to a few basic variants. Visually, the game works with a colorful pitch and small player figures; music is absent and the sounds are limited to kicking the ball and crowd applause on a goal, or a whistle when the ball leaves the field. The pace of a match is slow compared to today's soccer simulations, and controlling a single player out of the whole team requires some getting used to before the player masters switching between individual characters.

Despite its simplicity, RealSports Soccer shows how Atari approached soccer before the genre was taken over by licensed series such as FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer. The game offers no leagues, clubs, or player names, yet at the time of its release it was a respectable representative of the sports genre on eight-bit consoles and showed that even a simple concept could keep two players glued to the screen for long hours. As one of the first titles in the RealSports line for the 5200, it also helped define what sports games should look like on the new generation of Atari hardware. Today it serves mainly as a record of the early history of soccer video games and as pleasant retro fun for two players at one screen.

Why play it: For pleasant retro fun between two players at one screen and as a record of the early history of soccer video games, even without leagues, clubs, or the names of real players.