That's a beatiful piece of trickery!
Written: Jun 26 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: SUPREME gameplay.Special players
Cons: team selection,Graphics could have been a bit better
The Bottom Line: Anyone with any interest in the beatiful game who doesnt need exact realism and just wants a fun footy title should own this.Its bloody great.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Head-On-Soccer for Sega Genesis |
I would like to get one thing out of the way, throughout this review, I will be referring to this game as ‘Fever-Pitch’. That is because not only is it the European title for the game, and the one that I own, but it just sounds a whole lot less dumb than ‘Head-On Soccer’.
Something else that needs pointing out is that this has nothing to do with the Nick Hornby novel turned film Fever Pitch, which I believe was released in the cinema’s right about the time of this release.
As you have probably guessed, this game is a football, or soccer if you must call it that most horrible name, title. Except the thing that the game used to distinguish itself from the waves of other footy titles released at the time was Special players. While you may be asking yourself, “what the hell is a special player? Someone like Ronaldo who can come from nowhere to win a game?” well yes and no. You see, instead of worrying about such trivial matters as real player names and appearances, US Gold opted to make some unique players with unique abilities.
You have Barger, who plays like Paul Gascoigne minus the silky footwork (ie. He has his elbows up and barges his way through defenders, hence the name), Tricky, who pulls the ‘Bunny-Hop’ manoeuvre made famous by Mexico’s Blanco, The Cheat, who like Henrik Larsson goes down like a sack of potatoes at the touch of a button, The marker, who has no special move, but like Paulo Maldini sticks to his man like glue, The Passer, who uses Zidane-esque passes that somehow manage to pick out forwards from long range, Striker 1, who can hit the curved shots that make Roberto Carlos’ kicks look straightforward, and Striker 2. Who hits it. Hard. Hard enough to ignite the ball like Les Ferdinand but a bit better.
There are also other standard players there to make up the numbers.
There are two modes of play in the game, Exhibition and Tournament. In Exhibition, the teams each have a set number of star players. For instance, Brazil is made up almost exclusively of them, while Kuwait doesn’t have any.
In tournament, no matter who you choose, you begin with a team of standard players and as you win games you can recruit stars. The tournament in question is unlike any in real life. You play through all the teams in the middle east, then all the Americas and then Europe.
But the game was not geared for 1 Player play really, due to not only its arcade nature, but the fact that if you owned the correct number of multitaps and controllers, you could have 8, yes 8 human players. Not even in these days of system links do games offer options like this, and hats off to US Gold for being adventurous.
Due to the arcade nature of the game, the controls are fairly simple, but are really designed for play with the 6 Button Joypad.
When In Possession, X is Shoot, Y is Header, A is Pass and the D-Pad allows you control the ballspin. The star players have their exclusive moves, B performs their individual special, while C allows them to deliver a cross and Z is a backheel.
When in defence, A is a slide tackle and B changes player.
On a three button pad, defensively it’s the same, but when on the ball A is pass, B is shoot and header, and the Star players special is C, backheel A B and cross B C.
These all respond brilliantly, and I personally love the ballspin control which allows you to just creep it round the keeper when usually it would go wide or into his hands. The fact that they are so simple allows for a brilliant pick up and play experience.
Graphically the game isn’t the best looking title for the Megadrive/Genesis but it looks good enough for me. The special players look different to the regulars, as well as sporting a star above their head. There are several different pitch textures depending on where you play. Such as a dryer, yellowy pitch in the Middle East.
The sound isn’t exactly stellar, although the crowd does sound pretty good, the semi-commentator gets really annoying really fast.
No, where the game shines is in the gameplay. Instead of painstakingly trying to recreate the exact essence of a football match, US Gold have set out to capture only the exciting and dramatic parts. Some games set out to make it look like you are watching a match, this game makes it look like you are watching highlights, with shots,saves, goals, headed clearances, tricks, sendings off, long range free kicks that curl round the wall, and other stuff that people watch football, hoping to see. No matter how many goals you are behind, or ahead, the game is not over. But this isn’t through any late 90s FIFA game horribleness of places you always score from, but just by making the majority of shots good, a lot of saves spectacular parries away and it actually possible to score from set-pieces (a rarity for the 16-Bit era).
Does anyone remember the Yugoslavia vs. Spain match of Euro 2000? Where the two teams were scoring goals and coming from behind like it was going out of fashion? That is what this game is like. While other games were going out to make sure that matches could resemble a 0-0 draw between East Stirlingshire and Albion Rovers, this game was made to resemble the former match.
The only major complaint I can actually offer against the game is that it doesn’t have enough nations to play as, and some of the choices are a bit off. I mean, Kuwait?United Arab Emirates? While Im not against their inclusion, I feel the Czech Republic (who the next year went on to the final of the European Championships) and Croatia probably deserved a place more.
The game reminded me of Sensible Soccer in that the graphics don’t appear to have been the first concern of US Gold, and making sure that the game was easy to pick up, play and enjoy was at the top of their list of objectives.
Unlike a lot of football titles I enjoyed when they were released for the Sega (eg. The FIFA’s), Fever Pitch has actually stood the test of time, and in this age of games trying to be as realistic as possible, is actually a refreshing break from having to look at football games trying to outdo each other in terms of realism.
If you and your friends are any sort of fans of the game, be it season ticket holders or just casual fans, I would recommend this game, as long as graphics aren’t a major issue for you. They aren’t by any means terrible for a 16-Bit title, but they certainly aren’t the best the console has to offer.
This is probably my favourite football title of the 16-Bit era, and is definitely up there in the running with the Saturn’s Sega Worldwide Soccer titles for the place as the greatest football game ever in my opinion.
If you happen to own enough pads and ‘taps and have enough willing friends, I can only assume that this game would be comical genius on 8 player.
The game casts a lot of realism aside in exchange for a whole lot of fun. And after all, isn’t that why you play games, for fun?
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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