Speccy Soccer: Community Edition

(Voxel Tower, 2023)

Quite a cool screen, even if their ball's a bit mis-shapen. Ouch

This is nice to see. There's not many that would be brave enough to attempt a footy game on the Spectrum in this day and age. It'd take something to top the FIFA steamroller surely, not to mention the 5,826,021 other such games there have been since the Speccy took a far from early bath.

Kick-off time. To be fair the sides look quite distinct here, it's just when they move that they don't

"In my day" the togger game of choice was probably Match Day II. And its predecessor naturally, but for me those chubby little fellows with their deflecty diamonds were as good as it got back then. Sorry, I didn't stick around for Emlyn Hughes or Kick-Off, or even Sensible Soccer in the PC age.

Hopefully any future upgraded version of this game might improve this pic slightly

This game is apparently much like Sensible Soccer in its top-down view from the Goodyear blimp. The nefarious-sounding Voxel Tower were also behind Space Racing, which I couldn't quite get my head around. Would I fare better with Speccy Soccer? Couldn't do a great deal worse Shirley...

A goal gets a slo-mo replay with classic old skool flashing 'R'

You sort out your keys and options, pick a friendly or cup competition, choose your fave Spanish team, even if you haven't got one, then off you kick! Then the action starts thick and fast. Your little ants dart around the place in desperate search of the magic black pixel, hoping to propel it towards your opponent's mesh type thing ("Net"-Ed.) Ooh, it's exhilarating!

You can choose your formation. Wish I knew which one worked

I'm being facetious but the game really does move pretty quickly. Your main problem is differentiating your guys from their guys, one in black and one in slightly lighter black. You have to go by instinct largely, but can you imagine the clashing if actual colours were used. Oh the humanity!

Hernandez winds up a long throw a la Dave Challinor BITD

Most of footy's features are here. Fouls, penalties, free kicks, corners, throw-ins, referee, hooligans, streakers. You certainly can't say the authors haven't tried. There's even a cracking beepy tune playing throughout the game, and it's not Match Of The Bleedin' Day! Kudos. Although it might be the Spanish Matcho del Dia, I dunno.

The tale of a rather boring half. At least I've still got 11 men for once

So lots of good stuff, now for the bad stuff. It's very tricky. There's a skill level option, but where do you go when you're struggling on level one? It took me A LOT of games before I managed to score, and I still haven't won a game. I know I'm cr@p but even so. Also, I can confirm that "the referee's a w***er" as he delights in sending your players off left, right and centre just for being ugly. Surely a red should be for 2 yellows by the same player, but no. As such, tackling is a massively risky business and best avoided.

"You're off! For being married to Shakira"

Controlling your passing also seems quite hap(Eden)Hazard and generally there's a slight feeling that this type of game might be a bit much for El Specco. But I wonder if the mighty Voxel Tower Of Mordor might some time release an upgraded version, with the difficulty level turned down somewhat. That might well turn out to be unbelievable, Jeff.

THE VERDICT

It's better than World Cup Carnival, but not as good as I.S.S., since it won't let you be Lake District United. It's better than Liverpool have been last season, but not as good as Luton Town. It's smarter than Harry Maguire, but...("Right, red card, yer off!!" - referee A. Barstad)

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