Super Nintendo
Released in 1992 by Nintendo
Grade: C-
If this soccer is super, how bad is regular soccer?
Where it falls in the series
In Japan, this is called Super Formation Soccer and it has four follow-up editions. No such luck in North America and Europe, where this series was one and done.
Praises and gripes
This game has a charming look and pulls off the low-angle viewpoint remarkably well. It’s easy to see everything going on, and the ball has a nice fluid movement to it. It’s a well-engineered game for what it is. But is it fun? That’s a different story.
The players don’t move with the same fluidity as the ball. The animations are stiff, and defense is especially painful because it’s hard to make tackles at the perfect moment, at the perfect angle. There’s a brutal pro-wrestling-style shoulder tackle, and it’s often ignored by the ref but occasionally warrants a red card, which doesn’t make much sense.
On defense, the game switches players automatically, and it attempts to alleviate any confusion by making you control multiple guys at once! Whatever you do with the guy you’re controlling, the players around him do too. You go for a slide tackle and another guy 10 feet away does one in unison with you. It looks like a dance routine! It can also take your teammates out of the play when you need them the most, which frustrated me to no end.
Offense has its issues too. The field feels cramped, forcing quick, short passing. There’s no room for creativity or pretty plays. Whenever I scored a goal, it felt cheap. Plenty of buttons on the controller go to waste, and I often used the shoot button as an alternative pass.
I can see some people really liking Super Soccer. It’s retro and simplistic. But I find it to be awfully repetitive and downright agitating. I’m all for a tense video game that makes you squeeze the controller tight, but this just isn’t worth the struggle. With such basic AI, the game boils down to unnatural passing, disciplined defense, and sheer persistence. There’s no joy in getting better, and there’s certainly not much beauty in this depiction of the “beautiful game.”
Published July 9, 2022