Sensible Soccer 2006 review

Ah. We've been here before.

What is football without a little controversy? A dry butter-less toast affair, that's what. Sensible Soccer 2006 managed to create enough pre-match buzz to parallel that of the England side going into World Cup 2006, only for the initial signs of excitement to fade away into distress and concern once early examples of play were shown. There's no doubt Codemasters' throwback to videogame football legend has picked up some rather mixed press so far. In our preview of Sensible Soccer 2006 we posed the question of whether it was a brave or stupid move to try and revisit the cherished past. The answer is here, and to be frank, it's not particularly pretty.

Let's take a closer look, shall we...

Just Like '66

Nostalgia is a funny thing. It seeps into your mind, invading every space with a distinct rose hue, seeking and often claiming validation in its influence on your viewpoint. Enjoyment becomes amplified, faults get shunted into a forgivable space and the subject of it becomes seemingly untouchable.

Case in point. This revamp of Sensible Soccer initially provides a wash of nostalgic feeling that has you desperately hoping that Kuju and Codemasters haven't messed around with the formula. "It was perfect as it was", and "why tamper with a good thing", become the clichés of the day.

And it's a mixture of horror and delight that has you realising that yes, there are some changes to the game's format. But barring a slightly ill-advised remix of Goal-scoring Superstar Hero, Sensible Soccer 2006 manages to stay very faithful to its humble roots. The alterations themselves are fairly insignificant to the gameplay, leaning towards a little current-gen visual boost that the marketing department can blazon on the back of the game's packaging.

So, the developer and publisher seem to know what they were doing. Excellent. After all, removing the core spirit of Sensi's appeal, its simple yet brilliant playability, would defeat the point, something that could easily be lost in a host of super-fancy 3D visuals and fancy four-button combination moves. And so at first, Sensible Soccer 2006 hits all the right spots.

The (coding) Hand of God

This pleasing jolt is partly down to the knowledge that the producer of the original Sensible Soccer, Jon Hare, was involved with Kuju and Codemasters' bigwigs David and Richard Darling. After all, if they were involved then it must be of a certain high standard, right?

Well, kind of. The first thing to stand out is the graphical overhaul. Any fears of a 3D revamp killing the simplistic essence of Sensi will be happy to know that the visuals have remained true to their roots. 3D they may actually be, but the cel-shaded bobble head nature of the players keeps the tone strictly within its nostalgic boundaries.

It's a welcome and pleasing change that lends itself nicely to the top-down viewpoint. Not to mention the little touches of personality given to each footballer, bemoaning missed chances and play acting from rough challenges. So, no real worries there. Visually, Codemasters has done a better job than expected.

There are also a vast amount of options to allow you to tweak and customise each of the 350+ club/international teams, most of which are up to date (although naturally soon to be out of date for the start of the new season). Just as well, given the pedantic licence for real names and clubs aren't present here, leaving you to have to deal with intentional and mildly amusing misnomers. Of course, most of this is typical of Sensible Soccer anyway, so veterans will be right at home while newbs will feel like a slightly left out and irritated away crowd. "Welcome to football", as Pele might say - circa the late 20th century.

Bend it like... erm... oh heck

Sensible Soccer 2006's gameplay is just as dewy-eyed reminiscent. The standard two-buttoned (pass and shoot) fast paced arcade styling of yesteryear remain in their glory, making for an often manic match of kick-and-rush and extravagant goals against the run of play. The addition of a sprint button and its relative energy bar adds a small amount of tactics to proceedings, leaving you to measure your player's stamina as play goes on. Again, it's a risky extra feature that pays off to the game's favour, creating sporadic yet exciting moments of breakaway play.

And let us not forget the joys of aftertouch, which returns in its maddening brilliance. Direction of the ball can be controlled straight after a shot with a little joypad magic, allowing for extra dip, swerve, bend or lift.

A well practiced player in the dark arts of aftertouch gains a pathway to making the ball perform tricks some consider to be… unnatural. All part and parcel of the beautiful game.

It all seems to come together so nicely. A blend of the old and new, designed to please both fans alike. So why hasn't it got a higher score than the one you see sitting so guiltily at the bottom of this page? Hmm. Well, the answers don't come from the first couple hours of play. It takes longer than that for the nostalgic rose tint to fade away and the pad-smashing problems set in. And perhaps most ironic - and worryingly - of all, these are issues caused by the game's admirable attempt to stick to the source material. What the *bleep*

Reeeeee-jected!

Alas, Sensible Soccer 2006's greatest strengths are also its greatest weaknesses. As brilliant a stroke it was to make sure the basic simplicity of the heritage remained, there are a few elements that could have done with being looked at more intensely. The first problem comes from the apparent ignorance with the rules of football. Having no safe tackle button is a fine principle.

But the slide tackle is so randomly enforced that reckless challenges are abundant and often unpunished. Any sense of meaningful play is soon lost as gangs of players all crowd into each other for the ball causing a confusing and seemingly random melee of who gets it without conceding a foul.

Worse, the AI can be shockingly bad, especially concerning the goalkeepers, who show a stunning lack of initiative - not only for your own team (and even though you can control him with the second analogue stick, this is far too cumbersome in practice), but also for the opposition goalie who will sometimes ignore the ball even if it's right. Next. To. Him. The stupidity is appalling. And when you factor in the earlier mentioned rule inconsistencies, things soon get very frustrating indeed.

It's not like we're asking for a level of realism that rivals Pro Evo. Arcade games are there for fast furious play. But a modicum of common sense should come with any game's AI routines, and Sensible Soccer 2006 fails in that respect, forcing expletives from your mouth like watching a rival player take a dive after tripping over his own feet and earning you a straight red. Grrr.

Erik the Viking Takes a Holiday

There's a distinct lack of polish in other areas too. Certain teams are mysteriously absent. Tactics are unwieldy, and of little use anyway. Also, licensing issues means the aural chants that were so wonderfully used Back in the Day are now gone. No more "Eric the Viking" or "come on you Reds".

Almost in response to having their collective tongues removed, the crowd barely shows any enthusiasm, with low rumbling noise and muted cheers offering a poor atmosphere. And while match commentary is rarely done well and probably wouldn't have fit Sensible Soccer's glorious roots, the lack of any sort of major sound-based excitement is a huge loss. It hurts the game passion, and leaves things feeling a tad flat.

Even the visuals suffer a little, too. Sometimes the animation experiences jumps, where the goalkeeper will apparently teleport from one part of his box to another. Other lapses include the screen zooming too far out from the pitch to help you distinguish the colours of similar teams, and there are moments when the game moves too quickly for the camera to keep up, so you lose track of who's got possession of the ball. Mostly this is stuff that really should have been ironed out at an early stage of development - and let's not even talk about the stupidly long load times. How can a console game take longer to load than its Amiga original?

It's a great shame, as coupled with its other problems, Sensible Soccer 2006's nostalgic haven is eventually replaced with irritable annoyance. The joys of the past begin to openly taunt the pains of the present. And the feeling that the game may have been rushed out in time for the World Cup starts to become a grim reality. Saddening.

Just like '06

It was an admirable effort to try and bring a classic up to the harsh light of the 21st century, but it seems that even now Sensible Soccer 2006 needed much more time to remove some awful problems that makes the game a trial at times. There's enjoyment to be had, no doubt, but it means ignoring issues that really shouldn't have survived QA testing.

The multiplayer mode thankfully makes things more bearable given that it instantly forces some of the AI faults in redundancy and suddenly you're enjoying the game again. But even that is in spite of its irritating features rather than bypassing them altogether.

Ultimately, it comes down to the realisation that nostalgia is all good, but there has to be a little bit of consideration that goes with it all too. A sense of realisation in knowing that as classic as some games are, certain aspects will age badly without tinkering. And this title may have taken the right route in terms of look and feel, but it's far too broken in other, more important areas to be as good as the glimpses of old school genius it occasionally shows. So, in answer to the posed question of "brave or stupid" in our earlier stated preview: yes, Codemasters was a little brave, but also little too stupid with it, sadly.

The soul of the original is here, it's just watered down by a lack of quality finishing in vital areas, resulting in mild disappointment for us old fogies, and a barely curious diversion for everyone else. Like England's overall performance in this year's World Cup, Sensible Soccer 2006's promise and pedigree was always there, but it tragically, tearfully and frustratingly fails to live up to either. Add another year of hurt to the damned tally.