Review by: Alistair Bodin
I love Soccer games and was honored to be asked to review Fever Pitch Soccer on the Jaguar for the Jaguar Journal. The game is a conversion of the highly successful US Gold game that was number one in the UK charts. The Jaguar version is an excellent conversion with many improvements, better graphics, more colors, better sound and faster game play. The players have names and numbers and this adds to the atmosphere when playing the game.
This is no game of animated cones all the same and indistinguishable, the players have character, are distinguishable in looks and have special skills. There is `Barger' the fat one who when he gets the ball will flatten nearly all the players as he makes his way to the goal. There's `The Cheat' the bald one whose special is that full length dive with no one near as he tries to con the ref, a great move when it works especially in the penalty area! `The Marker' is great as he tightly sits on the oppositions star players. `Passer' the slender longhaired one is excellent as he strokes the ball up the pitch to the star forwards. Then there is `Tricky' the tanned one with spiky hair who mesmerizes defenses with his ball skills. `Blaster' the strong dark haired one has a ferocious shoot and get the angle right the keeper has no chance as the burning ball bursts into the net. Last but not least is my favorite `Bender' who unleashes a shot that curves like a banana into the net GGGOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!
If you want a serious realistic boring game of soccer FPS is not for you, on the other hand if you like fast paced action with plenty of goals then FPS is the game for you. Hey I've played over 50 games with my mate and we have yet to have a boring 0-0 draw. There is no set up to speak choose the teams choose the pitch and off we go. If you have the ball you control that player and if you don't you try with the nearest player to get it back. The computer chooses the player for you to control and controls the other 20 players as well (if they are all still on the pitch). I must point out that occasionally the computer switches your defender at the wrong time, most annoying if you are just about to tackle and the wrong player makes the tackle. But great fun if it happens to the opponent so it evens up at the end. Come on Brazil. Passer passes to Tricky who hops round a few opposing players lays the ball square to Bender who shoots and the ball bends into the top corner and the keeper has no chance Brazil lead 6-3, the crowd think it is all over! The final whistle goes and Brazil have beaten England 6-3 in the World Final and I was Brazil.
For two player action this is my favorite Jaguar game as it is just great fun to play. Peter my 9 year son had the game and I left him alone with it and in minutes he was playing and beating the computer then worse still he beats me! He has the annoying habit of diving and conning the ref to give him a penalty which inevitably he scores from. Hey this lad has potential once he was even 6-1 down and managed to score 5 goals in just under 2 minutes to snatch a draw.
There is a choice of either tournament mode or exhibition mode. In Exhibition mode you choose the teams and the better ones have more star players and the worse ones no star player at all. You can either play two player or against the computer and the game is great fun. For a real challenge there is tournament mode, you choose your team and they start with no star players and as you win games you get the opportunity to have star players so you can strengthen your team and hopefully go all the way and win the world final and then beat the All Stars team!
The great thing with this game is it is easy to set up choose the teams, the pitch, the time and whether replays, Cameos are on or off and then the Agro mode on or off. When this mode is on the ref seems to ignore all but the most blatant fouls and he even misses those sometimes. I would say a bit like real soccer eh? Turn it off and the ref is less tolerant and will flash the yellow cards and occasionally the red card for those nasty fouls. No long protracted set up here a few clicks and off we go.
It plays great but how does it look I here you ask, you didn't ask, well I'll tell you anyway. The graphics are improved over the original versions and so they should be, but to be honest they are not as good as say Rayman, but then have you seen any pretty soccer players recently, thought not. The players are distinguishable from each others and look very real and are brightly colored and the pitches are really neat.
The game has the standard sound effects that add to the game, the oohhhhs and ahhhs as shots go close. The groans and thumps as players are fouled and splatted to the ground. The refs whistle is occasionally heard as he plays the game. The crowd are chanting the fog horns blaring as Brazil attack down the left, Berbetto has the ball and bang that banana shot goes flying into the net. GGOOOALLL comes blaring out and the crowd wildly cheer for the goal. Hey the sounds are not perfect but they add to the game and are certainly better than the original version.
Controlling the players is a piece of the proverbial cake. A for short pass, B for a shot or long pass and C for that special move. Star players have a bit of after touch so once the ball is passed or shot use the direction pad to add a little swerve or lob! Hey and the Star players can cross the ball (B&C together) and do a crafty back heel (A&B together) Nice simple controls that just let you get on with having great fun playing the game.
Hey I am running out of space at the end of this review and apparently the good folks at the Jaguar Journal want some scores for the categories. OK here we go.
Scotland 3, England 2 is my favorite score :-)
Graphics 8.5/10
Music/Sound Effects 7/10
Play Control 9/10 occasionally the computer swaps players at the wrong
time!
Fun Factor 9.9/10 hey no body is perfect!
Replay value 9/10 I forgot to mention you can replay all the goals and
Any of the action at any time.
I have to give an overall rating so being a logical chap I add the 5 categories and multiply by 2, now where is my calculator, uhmm that makes the Overall score 86.8.