"You don't have to be sensible to play this game"

Sensible Soccer, created by Sensible Software, is a game that I personally love. As a child I spent many months playing this in my bedroom, and it still has me hooked, over a decade after I first played the game.

In this review, there are 4 sections, each of which will be graded out of 25. The total will then be divided by ten and rounded to give the final score.

Gameplay 10/10
Even as a young child I could see potential in a computer game, and I was able to tell from the first time I saw Sensi Soccer that it would be a great game. I loved this game because while the players are tiny little sprites, it is still fairly realistic. Sensible Soccer is probably the only football (soccer) game where the size of the players is in the correct proportion to the pitch size. Most games have larger players and smaller pitches, allegedly so that gamers don't spend as much time in the midfield area, but not Sensi. Due to the realism of the game (even without realistic graphics or player names) it gets a 10.

Graphics 8/10
I have rarely judged a game by its graphics, and it's just as well that I never did that with Sensi Soccer. The player sprites, especially when compared to games for the next-gen consoles, look terrible, but the game wasn't really supposed to be a serious game and the cartoony graphics add to the fun atmosphere of the game. Because of the addition to the atmosphere of the game, graphics gets an 8 (would have been lower if the game was meant to be a serious simulation)

Sound 7/10
Being the son of a music teacher I have been gifted with a good ear for music. This game admittedly doesn't have the greatest sound in the world, but the music is nice and soothing, a great escape from the annoying pop music that you get in the likes of the FIFA series (hearing ''The Rockafeller Skank'' over and over on FIFA 99 drove me crazy) and the sounds in the game aren't too bad considering that the game is over ten years old. You get the typical sounds of a referee whistle, kicking/dribbling the ball and even crowd sounds (cheering after scoring a goal, booing after a foul, going ''Oh!'' after a near miss etc.). While the sound isn't wonderful, I'm giving it a 7 because it is an old game and was one of the best when it came out.

Replayability 10/10
Sensi Soccer will always keep you coming back for more. The game has lots of ready-made competitions, allows you to create your own leagues/cups, and surprisingly for such an old game it even allows you to edit player details. This is the main way in which Sensible Software got around having to have a licence for the game. The team changed player names slightly, but allowed the gamer to change the name to what it really should be (for example, Elly McCuist was the Sensi Soccer name for Ally McCoist. They just changed the first vowel of the first and second names). The player-editing functionality also allowed for a gamer to make changes to their favourite team if a new signing was made or to make up a dream team. You could even change the skin colour of the players, something which I personally never saw in any other football game of the time. Plenty reason to replay the game, and a well-deserved 10/10 in replayability.

There we have it. Let's count up the scores for the four sections... 10+8+7+10=35
If we divide the 35 by four we get a final score out of 10. 35/4=8.75, which is then rounded to a very respectable 9/10 overall. This is a fun game which can keep you amused for a very long time.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/03