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.
