Nintendo World Cup

"Pass. Shoot. Score! It’s World Class Fun!"

Altough it’s been 11 years since nintendo World Cup reached the shelves in the European stores I still play it, and definately regard it as the best. I was about seven years old and merely old enough to understand the greatness of the game when my brother bought it. But through the years I’ve started to realize what a masterpiece it really is. Hopefully someone will read the review and hopefully it will inspire someone to take up this game.

Story I won’t put to much weight in this session as it’s a soccer game, ok? At least this is what the back of the package sais: ”The eyes of the world are upon you. National pride is at stake. Only seconds left and the crowd rises in anticipation of the greatest upset in soccer history. The horn sounds and you’ve won it all! The coveted world cup trophy is yours!
Pick your team and plan your game strategy. Use advanced super moves like the Bicycle Kick or the Super Header. Choose from 13 teams, representing countries from all around the world. Defeat your opponents and you’re on your way to the prestigious world cup final.
When you finish the game you will see a nice sequence that I used to like when I were younger, neat.

Gameplay 11/10 No rules, almost! This is how entertaining a videogame can be. There’s no referee, and you can tackle, slide or shoot down to opponents until they get knocked out. When there’s a goal, everybody awakes. The only rules there are is throw ins, corners and goals. This is what makes the matches so deep. The game modes are simple, either you play alone against the CPU, or together with a friend. The longer you get the harder it gets. As each team has their own special kick(a few has the same) it’s far from boring. For each country you meet you’re shown a screen with a picture from that country and fitting music. Everything for the atmosphere. There’s also a very interesting multiplayer section where you can play up to 4 people if you have a multi-tap. The multiplayer section allow you to only choose between 6 teams, but here you will also choose what kind of ground you will play on. There’s normal grass, sand, ice(!), some dirt track with garbage on the ground, concrete and a few more.
Apart from that you will always have to pick your players when choosing a team, and all of the players are awesome characters, there is the punkrocker, a guy with shades, a frankenstein look-a-like and totally 10 guys I think. When you get tired of this game, you shouldn’t play more videogames.

Graphics 9/10 Plain and simple. I looks very well for a Nes game, and still today it feels good. The graphics are smart and makes the playing very fun. There are a few things like when you stand behind another player the game doesn’t know whom to show, it’s nothing big though. There are even different face expressions on the players as the shoot and get tackled. Guys that have been knocked out looks weird though.

Sound 10/10 Hard for me to tell the quality, as I got an old game and NES is a little out of date when it comes to technology. However I think it’s very good. The sound effects from shoots, slides, keeper saves and all things that occur in a soccer match are perfect. But what really brings up the score is the music, all from the menu to the end is perfect. The match music is solid.

Replay Value 10/10 You won’t get tired of this game. It has no real story and the opportunities is never ending. When you beat Argentina, you might feel through with the game, but it’s so much more to experience. Believe me.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/02, Updated 04/27/02