Moving on from the beast that is the commodore 64 behind, my next real memory of a football game coincides with my first real memories of real football on a huge scale… World Cup Italia 90. As a 6 year old watching the World Cup I hardly appreciated the efforts and achievements the England team accomplished and obviously have never again achieved.
World Cup Italia 90 on the cartridge disc of the SegaMegadrive, which it shared with 2 other games. Strangely, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage, relevance unknown, added to the excitement of this completely timeless classic. I still remember to this day the catchy music, from the title screen, right through a match, right through every single second of World Cup mode, dum da dum dum dumdum dumdum dumb da dum dum da da dumb (if you’ve played the game, you know it)…
You chose your opponent from a world map, hovering an arrow over the map until you found the team you wanted, why someone wanted to be given the opportunity to be the likes of Algeria I’ll never know, but hey who wants to be Aarhus in the Danish leagues on the latest edition of FIFA?
In its most simplest of forms the game was so immersive, the birds eye view, how the players looked like they never had arms, the simplicity of the controls, the hold in A for a slide tackle where you can literally take someone out, always, as the fouling rule mustn’t have existed back then! Hold B for a hoof, a tactic regulary used at all times, Slide and lynch the opposition with A, then 4 consecutive hoofs and pressing of the B button and you are at the other end of the pitch and GOAL!!!… ironic even, to the England style of play! Why the C button was necessary was a mystery, a game so simple it only required 2 buttons!
Winnning the World Cup felt like an actual achievement, but also, winning the World Cup was enough for that session, the tedious music now still ringing in your ears……
Enjoy the game in all its glory
Or, better still, play it yourself!
