Back in the good old days of 16-bit machines such as the Amiga, one of the longest running debates (wars?) between gamers was which is best, Sensible Soccer or Kick Off? For anybody who comes from the first camp, the news that Sensible Soccer is to make a return will surely bring with it a wave of nostalgia.

Both games were similar in their approach, with tiny little men in football strips bouncing a few white pixels that represented the ball around the screen, which displayed a vertically scrolling birds eye view of the pitch. May not sound much compared to the PES’s and FIFA’s of today, but considering the hardware wouldn’t allow for much else in those days, the intense footy action was hard to beat.

One of the main aims of this update is to try and recapture the fast and frantic gameplay of the original. The players are drawn in a cartoon style and are still kept fairly small on screen to allow more of the pitch to be visible at any time. This should make passing between players much easier and quicker, and hopefully more fun as well. The designers are conscious of the fact that most current soccer games end up feeling more like simulations than video games. Not that a simulation is a bad thing of course, but for a quick game after the pub with your mates a more knockabout fun approach would probably go down better.

The new version is being published by Codemasters, and is being developed by Kuju in conjunction with Jon Hare, one of the original designers of the game and co-founder of Sensible Software, who were also responsible for such other old school gems as Parallax, Wizball and Cannon Fodder.

Sensible Soccer is due for release early 2006 on PS2, XBox and PC. Check out www.codemasters.co.uk/sensiblesoccer if you want to know more.

You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Add to Del.icio.us