Olympic Soccer blasts high and wide at an open goal from 2 Yards
Written: Feb 29 '04 (Updated Dec 03 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It is pretty funny
Cons: Everything
The Bottom Line: Olympic Soccer is a terrible game,no one has any need to own it
|
|
|
| flash-hammer's Full Review: Olympic Soccer for Saturn |
Football.Soccer.Futebol.Calcio.Call it what you will, the beatiful game has been a favourite source of inspiration for game developers since early on in the industry.Some of
these games come and go with each season, some will go on forever, no matter how dated the roster, the great game can be played seasons after its release,(Sega Worldwide Soccer 98 on the Saturn and Sensible Soccer on nearly every format are good examples),then there are the other ones.These ones can be likened to the great gaffes of the footballing world, that will never be forgotten by those who witnessed them.Peter Van Vossen skying the ball over an open goal for Rangers against Celtic, the time Fabien Barthez passed to Thierry Henry while playing for Man Utd against his compatriot's Arsenal,Rangers paying £12 Million for Tore Andre Flo.This is the category Olympic Soccer is best likened to.
Now,out of all the tournaments in the world to release a game on, why the Olympic tournament?the majority of the countries taking part only use it as a chance to try out their younger players.While I can understand the Euro 96 tournament was taken, and there was no approaching World Cup for 2 years, but the Olympics?.It also turns out that the Olympic tournament name was all US Gold shelled out for, as none of the nations featured sport their real players.Now,I know many games have lacked real player names and went on to be brilliant, but it is always a bonus.
The instruction manual tells us a nice little story about the history of the games, and explains why there is no UK team,but this doesnt stop the makers including Scotland,England and Wales in the Olympic tournament mode though.I can't really say what other nations shouldn't be there(if any) because I cannot say I have ever really paid attention to any Olympic tournament.
There are 6 options that grace you when the title screen loads up, Arcade, which is a 32 team World Cup wannabe played over six rounds, next up we have Olympic, which is the titular tournament, which goes through the group stages and knockouts of the 96 tournament,League, which allows you to create a league comprising of 3 to 16 teams.Exhibition is fairly self explanatory,pick two teams and play a one off match,Load is the act of re-joining a save game and demo is the fairly pointless act of watching a totally computer controlled match.
Graphically the game looks decent from far away, but if you look a bit closer it soon become clear how much of a shambles the graphics are.The players do not actually have faces, just flat panels.Actually, this sums up their entire bodies.Think Virtua Fighter but much,much worse.While the game is old, other games in the genre around the time had the decency to put faces, no matter how primitive, on the players.
The sound is pretty guff as well.Altough this isn't something that is limited to this game alone, the majority of football games having this horrible noise to represent the crowd throughout the match this sort ow 'wawhoowawhoowah' noise, and when a goal is scored it is the same noise but louder, having been to many football matches at many levels, I can honestly say I have never made,nor witnessed anyone else make, any noise even close to that.The commentary is provided by 'Radio's Alan Green'.It is pretty run of mill 32 bit footy game commentary, but I do love the quote "There is almost an atmosphere here".
The game controls ok, in that when you press a button it does the action.Sort of.I mean, when I press 'A' the player hits something that I guess could be classed as a shot in some cultures,.The controls are fairly simple, when on the ball A shoots,B passes,C chips,L back-heels and R crosses, chipping the ball to players allows them to press Y and perform some kind of overhead kick, and C a header.
Without the ball, B is a slide tackle.There is no conservative tackle or sprint button.Poor.
But, how does it play overall?poor.The game has earned an almost immortal reputation amongst my friends for just how poor it is,with special attention given to the goalkeepers.Im fairly confident that Olympic Soccer is the only place you will EVER see someone beat the opposition keeper, in his goals, with a header, from the player's own box.Goals from throw ins are also fairly common.
Another fault is the game's blatant disregard for the rules of football.The latter point in the above statement is one example of proof(the ball cannot go in the net without touching a player from a throw) and the fact that players are often called Offside ever if they are nowhere near the ball.
About the only thing this horrible game has going for it is the humour factor.And that really isnt enough to warrant a purchase on a console that has the Sega World Wide Soccer games,Olympic Soccer actually pulls off something I would have thought impossible, it actually makes the same year's Euro 96 game from Gremlin look great.Most football titles get slammed for having an 'Always score spot'.Olympic Soccer actually doesnt have this, you have just as much chance (99.9%) of scoring from a goal kick as you do a penalty.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
flash-hammer
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Reviews written: 728
Trusted by: 106 members
About Me:
NICE!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.