Hah! The database won't let me select anything for the platform, but I imagine y'all can guess this is a Game Gear game!
And it's a really really good one!
Soccer games prior to full 3d can be rough. There's something about other sports that allowed for really playable 16-bit and earlier versions to still be fun and dynamic:
- Basketball games tended to reduce the number of players to 2x2 or 3x3 and even do half-court
- Hockey is a relatively small playing area with very direct passing and not a lot of start/stop
- Gridiron football is set-plays and formation driven
- Baseball tends to be very static with not a lot of moving parts at any given time (and a base arrangement that conveniently matches a d-pad!)
But soccer? Gosh, that's a horse of a different color. Soccer is one of my favorite things in the entire world right underneath like, my wife and cats, coffee, the Mega CD, clothes, UC Gundam and baseball, but goodness gracious does it often make for dire video games.
FIFA has gotten it more or less right with the help of modern analog controls and motion capture graphics and all of that, but back in the old days? Forget about it.
And I'd be lying to you if I said that J. League GG Pro-Striker '94 solves any of the problems old soccer games had. Passing to the right guy is frustrating, locating a shot is impossible, defense is difficult, etc etc. It's the same issues they all had, but what makes this game so good is that it does what it can to reduce those frustrations and it's on the gosh danged Game Gear!!
Plus when you score there's slow motion replay!!!!
I haven't played every pre-modern portable soccer game, but I've played a good amount, and you can do way way way worse than this one. If I wanted portable soccer in 1994 I would have killed for this.
And it's a really really good one!
Soccer games prior to full 3d can be rough. There's something about other sports that allowed for really playable 16-bit and earlier versions to still be fun and dynamic:
- Basketball games tended to reduce the number of players to 2x2 or 3x3 and even do half-court
- Hockey is a relatively small playing area with very direct passing and not a lot of start/stop
- Gridiron football is set-plays and formation driven
- Baseball tends to be very static with not a lot of moving parts at any given time (and a base arrangement that conveniently matches a d-pad!)
But soccer? Gosh, that's a horse of a different color. Soccer is one of my favorite things in the entire world right underneath like, my wife and cats, coffee, the Mega CD, clothes, UC Gundam and baseball, but goodness gracious does it often make for dire video games.
FIFA has gotten it more or less right with the help of modern analog controls and motion capture graphics and all of that, but back in the old days? Forget about it.
And I'd be lying to you if I said that J. League GG Pro-Striker '94 solves any of the problems old soccer games had. Passing to the right guy is frustrating, locating a shot is impossible, defense is difficult, etc etc. It's the same issues they all had, but what makes this game so good is that it does what it can to reduce those frustrations and it's on the gosh danged Game Gear!!
Plus when you score there's slow motion replay!!!!
I haven't played every pre-modern portable soccer game, but I've played a good amount, and you can do way way way worse than this one. If I wanted portable soccer in 1994 I would have killed for this.
5 Comments
Ooooh! That sounds like a rad list!
Oh @Angel_Arle you can update that list of yours too; a little while back I petitioned the database to add "Pro Yakyuu GG League '94" because it wasn't on there and they added it!
World Cup Italia 90 on the Mega Drive was the first football game I ever played. When you got tackled and splayed out or scored and this "goal!" voice track played was amazing at the time.
I haven't played it in 20 years but can still hum the music to it.
I haven't played it in 20 years but can still hum the music to it.
I updated the platform (and threw in a cover image while I was there!), so hopefully it should propagate here in a few days.
Angel_Arle
1 year ago