Tecmo World Cup Super Soccer

~ TECMO SOCCER ~

Tecmo / Media Rings

Super CD-ROM

1992

My curiosity is piqued whenever I see "Tecmo" at the beginning of a sports game's title. This is entirely due to the brilliance of Tecmo Super Bowl, as many of their other endeavors within the genre resulted in utter awfulness. I'm also always up for trying Media Rings releases, as they seldom fail to be interesting and sometimes achieve sleeper-level greatness; but porting a standard-looking soccer title didn't seem like an endeavor that would grant the company much opportunity to showcase their ingenuity. What this means is that Tecmo World Cup Super Soccer really intrigued me thanks to the names involved, but empirical evidence indicated a feast-or-famine result was imminent.

Well, didn't quite turn out that way. Tecmo Soccer is sort of in the middle somewhere--playable and innocuous, sure... memorable, not in the least. It looks nice (except, perhaps, during gloomy rained-on matches), employing a small batch of bright colors and relatively large sprites. The animation is poor and the scrolling, choppy; but the game still plays smoothly and at a decent (if not exactly exhilarating) pace, with the TSB-like side-perspective working just fine. This doesn't beat the soccer action EA delivered for the Genesis, but it's solid in its own right, and it comes cheap.

There are a number of different nations you can represent, but no USSR, unfortunately. I went with Argentina since it has always been like a second home to the Duomazovs. You can play with Japan League teams instead, if you prefer.

Tinker with your formation before kick off. I like an offensive alignment, as it really does help keep the ball in your opponent's zone, and you won't have to worry much about defense if you can maintain your assault. Once you've settled on a strategy, you can adjust the weather conditions.

This idiot wears the same outfit regardless of said conditions.

Remember the old EA NHL Hockey games in which players would always carry the puck down the rink sides to set up a one-timer? The bicycle kick is Tecmo's one-timer and your best bet for scoring goals.

As in most other old sports games, playing goalkeeper is always an adventure.

Neat, I thought. A game where penalty kicks/shots don't employ the usual "fancy" close-up view. Then I remembered the fancy close-up view is the only thing remotely cool about them.

Goals are appropriately hard to come by, so make them stand up. A single tally can prove decisive.