Nintendo World Cup

"I normally hate sports games, but Tecmo's games are different."

Gameplay - 10 Wow. I normally hate sports games, but Tecmo is different. Somehow, this game is just fun. I'm guessing that what makes this game fun to play over and over, is just being able to waste your opponents. The feeling of victory with your opponent lying legally dead on the field isn't describable. With a mere tab of the ''A'' button, you can send an opponent to his early grave... unless you score that is. Then everyone is miraculously healed. With special kicks, you can send an opponent flying LITERALLY 30 feet in the air! The game never seems to get tiresome, annoying, or boring.

Story - N/A Ok, you're on a soccer team, and you want to win the World Cup. You may have guessed from the title. I guess sports games aren't supposed to have plots. I'm guessing that makes the storyboards much less complex.

Audio - 10 You get a cool little intro for every team, which is interesting. The sound is top notch for a NES game, and the music is great. The only music that I can think of that is more catchy is Zelda's overworld theme.

Video - 8 The graphics are fine, they're not super, but they are just about as good as you can get for a NES. I think that the dead players lying on the field could have looked better. When I play, there are a lot of them.

Replayability - 9 This game is great the second, third, fourth, thousandth, anytime you play! I don't know what it is about NES sports games, put they just plain NEVER GET OLD. Don't ask me why. This game is still fun, and that poor little cartridge is very old.

Difficulty - 8 This game starts out easy. You know what game scores usually are in soccer? 3-2 or something? Well, on the first match, my cousins and I challenged each other for the most points scored against the Cameroon (the first team). So far, our record is 42-0. The best I've gotten was 40-0. If you've done better, e-mail me at mth10@usa.net, with your score.

Novelty - 10 WCS is as rare as they come. I've never really seen superpowers in a sports game before. They may only have superkicks, but I've never seen that either. I've also never seen a game where you can knock out an opponent! And, the look on their faces when they get hit. That's priceless.

Multiplayer - 9 This is one of the best games you can play with a friend/enemy/sibling/cousin/spouse/parent/dog. You can play with each other, just like the single player game, and you can also play against each other on a host of different fields, including rocky, where the field is covered with rocks and obstacles that you can trip on, and ice, where everthing slides wildly!

To buy or to rent? - Buy, buy, buy, all the way! I'm not sure I would shell out much for a NES game today, but when it was new, it was an easy $50'er. My third favorite NES game. I'll tell you once that game gets old, but the copyright on it will probably expire long before that happens. It's just the best sports game you can buy, short of Tecmo Super Bowl.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/01, Updated 06/13/01