Without even the slightest inkling of a doubt, Sensible World Of Soccer is the ugliest football game you can buy today. Sensible Software just don't want to move into the 1990s,

This review taken from PC Gamer. Please visit the PC Gamer website at : http://www.pcgamer.com

Without even the slightest inkling of a doubt, Sensible World Of Soccer is the ugliest football game you can buy today. Sensible Software just don't want to move into the 1990s, continually releasing what can only be described as Amiga emulators. Sensible World Of Soccer European Championship Edition, hereafter known as SWOSECE, is just a seven-year-old game repackaged for the umpteenth time and chucked out again to soak up stacks more cash for all concerned.

Now, this would be bloody annoying if it weren't for the fact that, despite a flurry of European Championship related releases and re-releases, SWOSECE is still more fun than anything else out there, and by a chalk so long it would snap if you tried writing with it. Take away all that flashy motion capture and famous commentator baggage and the likes of Euro 96 and FIFA 96 are left as hollow, flawed and slow-moving soccer sims. SWOSECE, on the other hand, doesn't ever pretend to actually play or look like a game of football. Instead, it takes the essential elements of the sport and combines them with fast-paced arcade action and a constant flurry of passes, tackles, dives and headers. You could describe it as end-to-end stuff. But that's what SWOS has been like since it was first released, and, in truth, very little has changed since its previous appearance in November's issue 24. Twenty-four thousand players have been updated to reflect the latest information available, and, as you would hope, the European Championship reflects the current draw. Own SWOS, though, and you can create Euro 96 as a custom competition. Other than some sparse commentary from some TV unknown, SWOSECE is SWOS with player and squad updates.

And that goes for the problems. The very worst of all is that you still don't have any control over the goalkeepers. In a vain attempt to overcome their own shortcomings, Sensible have programmed the hardest goalies you'll ever have to beat, but this is little consolation when you are convinced you are playing better than the PC, fire off some amazing shots (which are saved) and watch as a decrepit opposition centre half punts the ball past your own strangely stationary keeper. I can live with being a goal down if I had plenty of time to get it back, but championship matches last for an inexplicably short five minutes. It's still as much two-player fun as you can get on one PC, with plenty of obscenely detailed management career options if you want to sit in a darkened room for months on end. And it's definitely the best football game you can buy. Keep your fancy pants to yourself, Gremlin and EA, and play this instead. Um, unless you bought the last version, in which case save your money.

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