Super Soccer

The stadium roars, the camera sits somewhere high behind the goal and the players spread across the pitch in a perspective nobody expected on a home console back in 1992. Super Soccer by Human Entertainment is among the first football games to fully exploit the Super Nintendo's graphics chip and its famous Mode 7 to draw the pitch in a semi-pseudo-3D view instead of a flat top-down one. The result is an experience that still feels surprisingly dynamic today.

Mechanically it is old-school arcade football. You always control the player nearest the ball, pass with one button, shoot with another, and the rest is handled by semi-automatic switching. The game doesn't bet on the simulation depth of later titles, but on speed, clarity and instant fun. The goalkeeper got his own save animations, and long-range goals are accompanied by a satisfying shake of the net.

The visuals were a period draw. The pseudo-3D pitch tilts and scrolls, players grow larger depending on their distance from the camera, and it all runs smoothly. For players used to the static football of the eight-bit era it was an obvious leap forward and one of the reasons Super Soccer became one of the first sports arrivals in the console's library.

There is a range of national teams to choose from and a tournament mode that guides you all the way to the final. Without FIFA licences, the teams are marked by colours and abbreviations, which doesn't hurt the arcade approach at all. A duel between two players at a single console is exactly the kind of fun that had enthusiasts gathering around the television.

The game was released in Japan, North America and Europe and became one of the early pillars of the Super Nintendo's sports offering, before the big annual brands took over the market. For many European console owners it was the very first football they played on the SNES, and for that very reason it retains its nostalgic value to this day.

Today Super Soccer is more of a historical exhibit than a rival to modern football games, but as a demonstration of how far the Super Nintendo could push the sports genre in the early nineties, it stands up wonderfully. It is a fast, loud and friendly game that nobody gets bored with.

Why play it: For brisk arcade football with an eye-catching pseudo-3D perspective and instant two-player fun at a single screen.