Collection Review: Taito Legends 2 Part 1

Arcade Collections for the PS2 are something that I can't seem to stay away from. Today's review is Part 1 of my look at Taito Legends 2 which features 39 Taito arcade classics. The games are listed chronologically on the menu screen so that's how I'll be looking at them. The games featured in this review date from 1979 to 1988 and so are fairly early, though it remains to be seen if this will count against them.

Game: Lunar Rescue
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1979

As the earliest arcade game featured on this collection, I wasn't expecting anything particularly complex out of Lunar Rescue. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't a Space Invaders clone or anything of that kind also. The game is split into two phases; descent and ascent. On the descent players must avoid asteroids and land on a base at the bottom of the screen, and on the ascent players must shoot alien ships that are in their way whilst avoiding their fire and attempt to deliver their rescued crew member to safety in the ship at the top of the screen,

The controls are simple, using the d-pad and a single button only. The button controls the thrusters on the descent, and shooting/thrusters on the ascent, depending on whether it's pressed singularly or held. My only real complaint of the controls is that there's no way to hold the ship still; it's either ascending or descending, players only control the speed.

Graphically the game is simple and uses the same idea as Space Invaders for colourisation; bands of colour across the screen rather than actual coloured sprites. Nonetheless the effect produced is somewhat trippy and gives the game a classic arcade feel. The sound effects for the game easily become grating and are probably its worst feature. Overall this is a simple but fun early arcade game.

Rating: 39/100
Grade: E

Game: Balloon Bomber
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1980

Balloon Bomber is another fairly simple early arcade title from Taito; players control an anti aircraft gun and attempt to shoot down swinging bombs which are attached to balloons. If the bomb is shot then it explodes, taking the balloon with it, but if the balloon is shot then the bomb falls towards the player. The bomb can be shot down before it reaches the ground, but if it isn't then it will create a hole where it lands, preventing players from travelling further than that hole in one direction.

Once again the controls are simply the d-pad and a single button, and the graphics are simple coloured band sprites. There's a simple musical theme which accompanies gameplay which I quite liked, and overall it's a pretty fun high score style arcade game.

Rating: 42/100
Grade: D

Game: Crazy Balloon
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1980

Crazy Balloon is a very simple maze game where players must guide a swinging balloon through different levels of a maze which escalate in difficulty. The d-pad is all that's used to control the game. If players hit an obstacle in the maze, then it will disappear for all subsequent turns which I found impressive as this can be used tactically to make the maze slightly easier in later levels.

Graphically the game is very similar to the first two games featured although I noted particularly smooth movement animations on the balloon. There's a small music theme when a life is lost, but little else in the way of sound. Overall this game might be a little simple for its own good.

Rating: 7/100
Grade: F

Game: Qix
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1981

Qix is one of the most famous game concepts in existence although it's name isn't that familiar to most gamers. The aim of the game is to gain a supermajority of the playfield by drawing lines across it to claim territory whilst avoiding enemies. The enemies present in this game are the Qix, a fast moving set of lines which makes the player lose a life if touched while in the play area, and Sparx which travel around the outside edges, forcing the player to constantly gain more territory.

Players can choose to draw quickly with one button, or slowly with another for more points. As the difficulty is fairly high, most of the time it's advisable to be drawing fast. The concept of this game has been reused many times in more modern games such as Pacxon and the Art Class minigame from Bully.

Graphically the game is simple, but displays all necessary information well. It's easy to see whether lines have been drawn slowly or quickly, and my only wish is that the Sparx were a little easier to see, as many times I lost track of them only to lose a life due to being caught by one. Overall this version of Qix isn't the best I've played as later games have provided updates to the formula which improves it, but there's no denying the influence this game had on many later projects.

Rating: 60/100
Grade; D

Game: Alpine Ski
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1982

Alpine Ski is a fairly simple arcade game where players must control a skiier and avoid hitting obstacles whilst collecting points and navigating a ski course. There are three parts to the course, the first where players must only survive, the second where there are gates to pass through, the third where a jump must be made. It's very difficult to get to the 3rd stage, even with the maximum time limit, as obstacles can be hard to avoid.

The controls for the game are simple; the d-pad is used for movement, with a single button to increase the speed of the skiier. Unfortunately the movement isn't very responsive and the difference between a little and lots of movement isn't too well defined, resulting in a lot of mistakes and colliding with things.

Graphically the game is colourful and a little better than the games that came before it, featuring some fairly impressive trees and other visuals for 1982, considering that the Atari 2600 was the height of home console technology back then. The sound of the game is pretty average for the time, featuring a decent tune which gets interrupted by the crash sound far too much.

Overall this is a difficult arcade game which more than anything shows the progression of arcade games of the time. While there's a little fun to be had with the skiing action, the difficulty gets in the way of any true enjoyment, and the overall simplicity of the game limits its replay value.

Rating: 18/100
Grade: F

Game: Wild Western
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1982

Wild Western is an incredibly simple arcade game which features 2 repeating levels. Both involve shooting bandits who are attempting to rob a train. Players control the sheriff who can be moved in all directions, but only shoots in a north westerly direction. This requires careful placing of the sheriff to successfully shoot all of the bandits before the sheriff himself is shot. Other than this though, the game presents no real challenge; there are 6 bandits per level, and once they're shot the game changes scene and moves onto the other level for more of the same.

Graphically the game is pretty poor, with its 2D depiction of horse riders leaving much to be desired. Similarly, players are treated to a strange rendition of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" as backing music. Overall with an overly simplistic concept, two levels of play, bad graphics and music, this isn't so much of an arcade legend as retro game that needs to be forgotten.

Rating: 6/100
Grade: F

Game: Chack'n Pop
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1983

Another maze style arcade game, Chack'n Pop tasks players with rescuing stolen hearts by traversing a maze filled with monsters using only only bombs and the main character's ability to defy gravity. While navigating the maze and freeing the hearts from their cages is fairly easy, once the monsters begin to drop from the ceiling in large numbers, as they do a few moments into each level, there's almost no way to stop them from taking away a life.

Bombs are pretty useless as they'll either roll past the position of the monster as it moves, since there's a delay on their explosion, or end up taking you with the monster as the bomb explodes. With no other way of killing the monsters, and no options for avoiding them, especially in large numbers, this means that it's hard to get at all far in Chack'n Pop.

Graphically the game looks eye catching and uses a lot of colours despite its simple appearance. The music used to accompany gameplay is very simple, but the game's theme and other music has an almost NES like quality to it. Overall there are quite a few issues with Chack'n Pop, but if you're a fan of mastering slightly difficult games, it might be worth a look.

Rating: 35/100
Grade: E

Game: Front Line
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1983

Front Line is a very poor excuse for a military arcade shooting game. Players control a soldier who is only able to shoot straight upwards, with bullets that don't travel much further than a foot in front of them. There are also grenades which can be thrown, but their trajectory is strange and unpredictable meaning that most of the time they're useless. Enemy soldiers move around and shoot quite a lot, making them difficult to hit and avoid shots from. Controlwise the game is also poor; the movement doesn't feel natural and getting around obstacles without being shot is incredibly difficult.

The graphics are poor, with worse representations of trees and people than Alpine Ski from the previous year. The play area is small when compared to the screen size and enemies can move into positions which are invulnerable to player shots. Overall Front Line is hardly enjoyable at all, and I'm a little puzzled as to how it was chosen as a 'legend' for this collection.

Rating: 4/100
Grade: F

Game: The Fairyland Story
Console: Arcade
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1985

While clones of existing games are bound to exist in the video game industry, it's rare to see a company clone their own game. Taito released Bubble Bobble in 1986, and it's one of their best known games, however just one year before this, The Fairyland Story was released. In this game, players take control of Ptolemy the Witch and jump around platforms in each level, aiming to turn all enemies into cake and push them off the edges.

The game controls and plays very similarly to Bubble Bobble, and feels almost like a prototype. It's fairly easy until multiple enemy types are introduced and the number of starting enemies increases, at which point survival becomes more difficult. There's a high amount of challenge to the game, and while the first few levels feel too easy, the latter ones feel too hard. It's possible to kill enemies by using your magic several times on them and I found myself doing this more than pushing them off edges.

Graphically the game is in a cartoon style and although simple, it feels similar to that of some later NES games. The most notable feature is the similarity in layout to Bubble Bobble. Musically the game features an engaging but somewhat childish soundtrack, giving the impression that the title was aimed more at children. Overall while The Fairyland Story isn't a great or particularly engaging arcade game, it's definitely a piece of Taito's history and is worth a play.

Rating: 44/100
Grade: E

Game: The Legend Of Kage

Console: Arcade

Developer: Taito

Release Date 1985

The first arcade game that I truly enjoyed on this collection, The Legend Of Kage follows the titular character in his efforts to rescue his girlfriend from a seemingly random enemy. The game plays out across 5 stages which culminate in a boss, and then repeat with a changed season, swapping the colour palette. Kage must use his throwing stars and sword to defeat the enemies in his way and advance through the game.

Kage's jump is very powerful and sends him high in the air, however his trajectory cannot be altered one he's taken off. It's possible to fire the throwing stars in 7 directions, straight downwards being the only way they won't go. The first stage is set in the forest, the second at the castle moat, the third scaling the castle walls, the fourth inside of the castle, and the final level is a boss fight which is far easier than it should be. 

Graphically the game is pretty simple and resembles NES graphics somewhat. Most of the enemies are the same sprite, but palette swapped which means that things can get a little repetitive after a while. The music of the game is good at first but can get repetitive after a little while, as it doesn't change from stage to stage. 

Overall The Legend of Kage isn't the most exciting or engaging game ever, but with decent controls, a selection of stages and some good progression it's easily one of the better games so far. I'd recommend a run through if you're a fan of action/ninja style games as the choice of weapons and general gameplay make this a cut above the rest. 

Rating: 64/100

Grade: C

Game: KiKi KaiKai

Console: Arcade

Developer: Taito

Date: 1986

In KiKi KaiKai players control Priestess Sayo-chan who must repel ghosts in order to rescue seven Lucky Gods. Sayo-chan can shoot with her talisman to defeat enemies or use a purifying rod to wave enemies away. There's also supposedly the option to use a crystal ball by pressing both the rod and talisman buttons together but I couldn't find an opportunity to use it. 

Levels are fairly linear and enemies can easily be avoided as long as they're not travelling directly towards the player. Once a key has been picked up, the boss of each level can be fought. This presents a challenge in that players can only shoot in the direction that they're facing, meaning that dodging whilst shooting is far harder than in a traditional space shooter, for instance. This is also a problem every now and then in the levels themselves. 

Graphically the game resembles that cartoon style of The Fairyland Story, from from an overhead view. There's nothing particularly impressive in either sound or visuals and the gameplay also leaves something to be desired. Overall KiKi KaiKai seems to be missing a few features that would make it a true arcade hit.

Rating: 42/100

Grade: E

Game: Kuri Kinton

Console: Arcade

Developer: Taito

Release Date: 1988

Kuri Kinton is a fairly simple beat 'em up, following the story of a policeman who is working his way through an underground base to rescue a high ranking officer and his daughter who have been kidnapped. Players are given one button to perform attacks, and have free range of movement around the base, including 2 types of jumps. 

The game moves continuously downwards through the underground base, past mid stage bosses, regular bosses and legions of henchmen towards the final boss. There's nothing particularly special in the way the game plays out, save for the fact that there's no breaks after bosses. The difficulty is well balanced, and with infinite continues available most players should be able to make their way to the end of the game easily. 

Graphically this is the first game to be anywhere near the 16-bit style of SNES or Mega Drive graphics. The comic style onomatopoeia above the player when attacks land is a nice touch, but the levels seem to repeat somewhat even if they do change colour. The music of the game is good but a little forgettable.

Overall Kuri Kinton is a no frills, short but fun beat 'em up which has most of the makings of a good arcade game. Despite only have one button for attacks, there's a good range of hits that can be landed when moving about, and the variety of boss patterns is impressive. 

Rating: 71/100

Grade: C

Game: Syvalion

Console: Arcade

Developer: Taito

Release Date: 1988

The final game I'll be looking at today is Syvalion, a game where players guide a metal dragon robot through a maze whilst shooting fire at enemies. The fire gets less powerful the more it's used, but is rechargable and the dragon itself is able to take a certain number of hits before exploding into tiny pieces. There are five stages, each with their own boss to work through and a story which is resolved by the end of the game, but not of much note. 

The controls for the game are fairly standard with a single button to shoot flames, and either the d-pad or analog stick used to direct the dragon. The analog sticks and d-pad move the dragon at different speeds, however and a combination of the two speeds is needed to successfully navigate through the maze. At times its best to charge through timed obstacles as fast as possible before they damage you, but at others moving fast will only get players stuck. 

Graphically the game looks impressive, especially for 1988 as it resembles 16-bit graphics. The sounds and music of the game are also good, and add to the experience. Unfortunately the game is rather hard, even on easy mode I ended up using at least 20 lives to finish the story. As there are infinite continues on this version of the game, it's not a problem, but it could be in arcades and the constant interruption to reset players breaks the flow of gameplay somewhat. 

Overall Syvalion seems like a good concept that was executed a little poorly in the end. The controls don't quite work as well as I'd like them too, and when couple with the short length of the game and its overall difficulty, these points mean that there's little replay value or interest to the game as a whole. 

Rating: 55/100

Grade: D

Game Review: Grand Theft Auto V

Game: Grand Theft Auto V
Console: Sony Playstation 3
Developer: Rockstar
Release Date: 17th September 2013

As it's been almost a year since the game's release, I thought it was high time I took a look at GTA V. The game is set in Los Santos which is vastly different from the Los Santos featured in GTA: San Andreas, despite retaining small throwbacks such as a version of Grove Street. Instead of following just one character through the events of the game, players can swap between control of three protagonists at will, once unlocked, unless they are in character specific missions, being chased by the police or otherwise unable to be switched to.

The game's three protagonists are some of the most developed characters of the GTA universe, with a fair amount of backstory and interesting views on events. After the opening mission/cutscene we're first introduced to Franklin who is working for a car dealer, repossessing cars and is generally involved in small time gang events. He meets Michael, a retired criminal a few missions into the game and is taken under Michael's wing in a sense as they plan some larger criminal activities. Finally we meet Trevor who is unpredictable, uncompromising and runs a small business empire centred around drugs just outside of the city.

The story mode missions of the game follow the three protagonists through events in their individual lives which show more of their character and their usual way of life, as well as following them through 5 heist missions which must be planned, set-up and executed in order to make a financial profit at the end. There are 69 story mode missions in total, which is 19 less than GTA IV. Overall though I feel that GTA V has a better pace that its predecessor and there are far more varied and exciting missions included this time around.

There are also many side missions in which players can partake; parachuting, flight school missions, one off family events for Michael and tasks done for random strangers are all available to show off the variety of gameplay and action available. Alongside these are events which randomly occur such as robberies and police chases, which the player can choose to help out in. Returning a stranger's purse or wallet can sometimes lead to a financial reward or even a new contact.

While I won't spoil any of the game's plot, I will say that the story mode has an excellent and fast paced narrative that allows players to understand all three protagonists lives and desires. The story missions will take players through many exciting almost movie-like situations, with the switching dynamic between protagonists being used to great effect. Side missions also provide an interesting and often amusing distraction from the main story, and are just as varied and fun.

Heist missions provide players with a choice of approaches and personnel for the job in hand, after which all of the required vehicles and tools must be gathered before the heist mission can be started. Every single heist had an air of excitement and novelty for me, and although some heist missions have featured in the series before, Rockstar have perfected them here.

Los Santos, the game's setting is a fairly large map ,based loosely on Southern Calfornia that has many interesting places to explore and things to find. The south half of the map contains the downtown city area and its beaches, while the north half of the map has more of a rural feel with mountains, plains and desert style locations. A good deal of the map will be seen through playing all of the story and side missions, but exploration is possible by many different means also.

As usual with Grand Theft Auto titles there's a wide range of vehicles with which the map can be explored. Each protagonist has a personal car, which will stick with them throughout the game even if abandoned or destroyed, and there's also a large range of cars on the roads which can be stolen. Motorbikes, bicycles, aeroplanes, helicopters and blimps are all available as player controlled modes of transport also. The train and tram vehicles featured in the game can be ridden, but not controlled in free roam mode.

This instalment of the GTA series is also the first to feature many things including animals (coyote, elk and dogs to name a few) which can be harmed if the player so wishes, it's also the first to feature the map as a single landmass rather than an assortment of islands, soft and hard top convertibles can retract their covers, there's no limits on what time of day missions are taken (the time will fast forward if it's unsuitable), and there's in-game music which isn't on radio stations for the first time.

The police system has also been changed quite drastically; all officers have a cone of vision which players must escape from to begin losing their wanted level. Once out of an officer's cone of vision, players must stay out of the line of sight for a period of time, until their wanted level goes away. This makes it somewhat easy to escape the police (I wasn't busted once during my playthrough, though the police wasted me quite a few times), but also gives slightly more realism to the game also, save for the short term memory of the officers once the wanted level is lost.

Controlwise the game is very responsive and cars, aeroplanes and bikes alike are easy to drive/fly. The shooting parts of the game are also straightforward, with a similar cover based shooting system to GTA IV. The auto targeting can make it a little too easy to shoot your way through large groups of enemies, but I found it necessary a lot of the time. New weapons have also been introduced such as gasoline to light fires, sticky bombs, and grenade launchers.

Once players have enough money they are able to purchase businesses such as strip clubs, bars, cinemas and even the golf club. Every once in a while missions will pop up to help with the running of these establishments, which the player can attempt or ignore. The businesses will provide players with a source of income each week, Also available as activites are tennis, golf, yoga and triathlons which serve no real purpose other than being an amusing distraction from the missions.

Graphically the game looks amazing. The landscapes and natural features of the map look excellent when flying over them, exploring in cars, or on foot. Player models could be a little better in terms of realism, but overall the visuals are excellent. I'm aware that they're being upgraded for the game's release on 8th generation consoles, but it's not in much need of improvement. The radio stations in game were a little disappointing for me, as there's been better selections of music in previous games, but there are more than ever to choose from, and the non radio soundtrack is excellent.

Overall Grand Theft Auto V is a game that is deserving of all of the praise and accolades it has received. It manages to mix its fairly serious storyline with elements of social commentary and outrageously wacky missions that provide a great sense of variety. While the game isn't 'perfect', there's very little wrong with the gameplay, missions or narrative and it's about as close as a free roaming sandbox game will get.

Rating: 97/100
Grade: A

Football Games Masterpost #2

Recently I've acquired a good deal more football games than I'd ever have much interest playing. Since I managed to review all of the football games I owned a while back with the first Football Games Masterpost, I'm keen to do that again and finally decide for good which is the best game. I'll be going in chronological order once again, and although these games span from the NES to the WiiU, most are centred around the year 2000.

Game: Soccer
Console: NES
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: March 1987

As the earliest football game I've ever reviewed, there's no real pressure on 'Soccer' to be anything other than a basic representation of the game of football. On the game's main menu there's a choice of 7 international teams to choose from, 5 difficulty levels and 3 match length options. While this is basic by today's standards I was impressed that players had been given so much choice. There's no option to choose which team you face, but that's not a huge problem.

The d-pad is used to move the currently selected player around; the game does rather well with picking the player closest to the ball for players to control as there's no button for players to control this. The A and B buttons are used to kick the ball, and as far as I could tell there wasn't a button to tackle the opposing team's players, as gaining control of the ball is achieved by successfully running into the player currently in possession.

Gameplay is pretty standard for an early football game; passing is difficult to do successfully so players will mostly be trying to hold onto the ball. When the time comes to shoot, there's an arrow which players can set shot direction with, in an attempt to beat the goalkeeper. The difficulty options provided cover a good range with 1 being far too easy and 5 being pretty hard. Graphically the game is basic, but offers enough differentiation between players and environments to get by. The accompanying music is enjoyable, and the sound effects and crowd noises are fairly standard for 1987.

Overall Soccer plays well for an NES sports game and would no doubt have been enjoyable for football fans back in the day. Although it'd be nice to have a tackling option, and better passing there's still some fun to be had, especially if you can get a friend in on the action. The game provides a decent base for subsequent football titles to build upon.

Rating: 46/100
Grade: D

Game: Power Soccer
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Kitty Group
Release Date: 30th March 1990

Power Soccer was released 3 years after Soccer for the NES so although they're both for the same system, I'd expect to see a little progression between the two titles. Power Soccer gives players a choice of two teams to play as; Eagle and Shark but I don't think there's any difference between the two, save for their kit colours. Opposing teams also have the same sort of names, such as Buffalo and Star. There are no other options to the game, and once the player's team has been picked, the match begins.

Unlike 'Soccer' the game is played up and down the pitch, instead of left and right. Personally I prefer to control football games from the sideline view rather than the goal line view, as I would assume most people do. Kick-off is difficult to gain an advantage from as players can only kick the ball towards their opponents rather than passing back to their own team. This can become frustrating if players find themselves kicking off a lot due to being several goals down.

Another complaint of the game is that the viewpoint switches when the ball gets near to either goal to a zoomed, slightly harder to use angle. While this angle is technically impressive for the NES it doesn't really help players to score or save goals. Switching between players is also difficult in the game, although it is user controlled it's hard to see who's currently selected. Graphically the game is a little less basic than Soccer in terms of its players, but shows less pitch features. Soundwise there's a nice tune which plays behind gameplay, but the sound effects can be a little lacking.

Overall Power Soccer is a bit of a let-down when compared to other NES football games due to its viewpoint, strange controls and overall high difficulty level. These days there's not much point playing anything but the best NES titles, so this is a game that's already been forgotten by most.

Rating: 23/100
Grade: F

Game: ISS Pro Evolution
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Konami
Release Date: 6th June 2000

Skipping forward 10 years or so to the end of the original Playstation era, ISS Pro Evolution the forerunner to the PES series was released. The important new feature of this game to note was the Master League Mode which allowed players to take control of a club team (from a choice of 16 of the best European sides of the time) and gain points based on match results, to transfer in players from other teams and make a custom all star team, of sorts. Whichever team players selected had its squad replaced with a generic set of fictional players, to give a blank slate.

The controls in the game are similar to other Konami football games such as PES, allowing players to pass, shoot, cross and tackle at will. There are also some skill moves available, although they're rather specific about when and where they can be used. In general the game controls well when compared to most football games of the time. Mode options include Exhibition Match, Cup Mode, Master League and Training, all of which are fairly self explanatory.

Matches tend to be contested defensively on Normal difficulty mode, with the AI providing a tough back line, and defensive controls for the player being easy to master. Scoring goals isn't impossible but will take practice and skill, much like real football. As the game has difficulty options all players should be accommodated, whatever their skill. Graphically the game doesn't compare well to Dreamcast football games of the time, or PS2 titles but has a distinct original Playstation feel. The commentary and crowd sounds are generally good, if a little repetitive and unintentionally amusing at times.

Overall ISS Pro Evolution is a decent football title which at the time of its release was one of the best available, as evidenced by its glowing reviews. As time has progressed certain elements of the game have become outdated, however the overall gameplay and freshness of the Master League Mode remain, meaning that even today players can get something out of the game.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Game: Euro 2000
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 10th August 2000

Released a couple of months after ISS Pro Evolution, in conjunction with the Euro 2000 football tournament, Euro 2000 by EA Sports uses a modified version of the FIFA 2000 engine. In addition to the Euro 2000 tournament mode the game also features a tournament format Challenge mode, Golden Goal mode where a set number of goals will win a game, Skill Drill which acts as a training mode, and Classics mode where players can play from the semi finals of all the previous 10 Euro championships.

Controlwise the game is pretty poor, as the dash has been bound to tapping the triangle button, and swapping players is set to the X button. Not only does this lead to players falling over their own hands while trying to input their actions but there's no autoswapping between players. If you're currently controlling a player and that player goes offscreen then you continue to control them until the X button is pressed, rather than being swapped to a player closer to the action. This gets frustrating pretty fast and takes a lot of getting used to. The controls for shooting and passing aren't too bad, however.

The AI in the game is pretty bad as I managed to score 19 goals in my first 2 games, with 3 of those being penalties; considering this was on the default time and difficulty settings, I doubt any assortment of options would be truly challenging. The AI also seems to lack any real intent to take the ball off players, only intercepting passes when they're already in the way of them. Graphically the game is pretty poor; any close-up on players reveals hideously chunky appendages and body parts. The commentary isn't up to the standard of ISS, but is alright.

Overall Euro 2000 is a let down due to its lack of challenge, disappointing AI, poor control selection and lack of auto swapping between players when the action moves across the field. The variety of game modes and licensed players could have been so much more enjoyable with better gameplay and other improvements. It's still passable as a football game, but there's definitely better games out there.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

Game: LMA Manager 2003
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Codemasters
Release Date: 15th November 2002

Done correctly, football management games should provide players with enough options to feel as if they're making a difference to the results and gameplay of the team as a whole, while making sure not to confuse players with a sea of options, stats, and other confusing information. Unfortunately LMA fails on both of these counts, providing both complex and confusing menus alongside a feeling of powerlessness when it comes to winning matches.

Outside of matches the main screens are not only difficult to navigate and understand, but are also time limited meaning that players who are new to the series have little to no chance of being able to change anything significant. While matches are played, players can shout basic commands and control substitution and formation options. None of these seem to do anything much, however and this results in frustration as your team tends to throw games away while you watch.

Graphically the game isn't particularly impressive, looking more like an original Playstation title in its match highlights. The menus and other game features aren't as bad, but still tend to look rather boring. There's very little in the way of commentary or interesting sounds from the game, and overall the audiovisuals are pretty poor.

LMA Manager 2003 fails to excite both as a football game, and a management simulation. With an array of options that seem to change nothing about the results, which are presented to players in a visually unappealing way, there's not much to like about the game. Unless you're an aspiring football manager who wants to understand the complexities of running a club, I'd give this a miss.

Rating: 20/100
Grade: F

Game: Premier Manager 2002/03

Console: Sony Playstation 2

Developer: Zoo Digital

Release Date: 19th December 2003

Released after the 2002/03 season that it features, Premier Manager was already at a disadvantage sales wise against LMA. Luckily game quality is the only thing that matters in this review since both games are now 11 years out of date at least. Taking a more meeting based, personal approach to football management than the menus and confusion of LMA, Premier Manager sometimes ends up feeling like a meetings simulator rather than a football management one.

At the beginning of each career mode game, players are invited to negotiate their contract with the chairman of their chosen football club, and begin preparations for the upcoming season. Once every member of training and commercial staff has been met with, players can arrange transfers and organise training for their squad. Enticing any players to join your club is a difficult business and quite possibly reflects the real life challenges of signing a player. Assuming the player hasn't quit after a month and a half of meetings and setting things up for the upcoming season, games will actually begin to be played.

The highlights system for the game is what you'd expect from a management game, but better graphically than LMA 2003. When meeting and interacting with staff, their faces and models lack detail somewhat, but are fairly representative of graphics from 2003. There's hardly any sounds in the entire game, save for background noises such as the crowd or whirring equipment in the medical centre. This is disappointing for a game based around interaction, but understandable as there'd have been a lot of lines to voice.

Overall Premier Manager may oversimplify football management a little, but it shows players all of the options available to them and allows them to set up the team as they see fit. The choice of responses for conversations is a nice touch, although sometimes there's no way to convey how you're really feeling, but it's a clever way to hide all of the management options. On the whole, while I'm not the biggest fan of management games, this seems to be on the right track.

Rating: 48/100
Grade: D

Game: Mario Strikers Charged Football
Console: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Next Level Games
Release Date: 30th July 2007

Mario Strikers Charged Football is the odd one out in this roundup of football games; it takes itself far less seriously than any of the other games featured and focuses on fast paced 3 minute games where scores of 31-0 are entirely possible. There are 3 different game modes as well as a training option, and now inaccessible online mode via Nintendo WiFi. Domination mode is the equivalent of exhibition match, allowing players to adjust many of the options and go head to head, Road to the Strikers Cup mode acts as the career mode, with 3 progressively more difficult cups to win and a maximum of 39 games to win, and Challenge mode provides scenarios in which players must meet certain goals.

The controls for the game are simple; teams consist of 4 players switched between by pressing A (also the pass button), the d-pad tackles when players aren't in possession and does tricks when they are, the B button is used to shoot, C to use items, Z to lob the ball upfield and the analog stick of the nunchuk to move around the field. Moves using the A and B buttons can be charged for more power, and holding B for a long while without being tackled (when in possesion of the ball) will set off a Megastrike which can score up to 6 goals, depending on the speed of the shots and the goalkeeper's skills.

The overall difficulty of the game ranges from fairly easy in the early stages of the career mode to nearing impossible for the final matches. The best bet for well matched difficulty is multiplayer mode against a friend of equal skill, otherwise there'll only be a small amount of games which are at a good level. Graphically the game looks good, although players can be a little small onscreen at times, and there's a slight amount of slowdown in pre-game cutscenes. The music featured in the game isn't quite as memorable as you'd expect from a Mario game, but it's not bad either.

Overall Mario Charged Strikers Football is a fun, but short and slightly unbalanced game. The fast paced and easily changeable arcade action makes a nice change from more serious football titles, and isn't affected too badly by the large gap in AI difficulties. The scenario mode is a fun concept but past the first few, they become pretty difficult. The fact remains that sports games need a unique twist to stand out, and this game has just that.

Rating: 76/100
Grade: B

Game: FIFA 11 

Console: Nintendo Wii/Sony Playstation 3

Developer: EA 

Release Date: 4th October 2010/28th September 2010

While the PS3 and Wii versions of FIFA 11 are entirely different experiences, I don't want to spend too long pointing out everything different between them. I'll start with FIFA 11 on the Wii as it's the first of the two games that I played; featuring 2 career style modes as well as the option to play in any tournament you wish, or exhibition matches, FIFA 11 on the Wii's mode select menu seems pretty sparse, though it actually covers pretty much everything you could want. 

There's not a huge amount of motion control needed to play the game if you own a nunchuk; the A button is used to pass, the B trigger to charge up and shoot, the control pad for tricks and the Z button to sprint. The only moves requiring motion control are slide tackling and self volleys which are controlled via shaking the wiimote and nunchuk respectively. The only complaint I have of the controls is when players are not using a nunchuk; the computer controls movement, leaving players to "focus on the fundamentals of football" (i.e. passing and shooting). 

Streets to Stadium mode is the best experience, as it challenges players to create a footballer who spends his first season playing matches on the streets before being signed by major football clubs for the next 4 seasons. Throughout the 5 seasons players will compete in some of the fixtures of their chosen club as well as some training matches, earning XP and Fame points by completing selected challenges. With enough Fame points (getting up to Level 10), players can represent their chosen international side, and take them to a World Cup at the end of Season 5. 

The viewpoint in Streets to Stadium mode isn't typical of most FIFA games, showing action focussing on the created player, who is the only footballer on the pitch that players are in full control of. It's possible to call for passes between your team and orchestrate some pressuring defensive moves, but there's no control of movement for other players. The viewing angle definitely takes some getting used to, and Fame/XP matter far more than actual results a lot of the time, but this is definitely the most engaging mode I've come across in a FIFA game. 

The other career style mode included in FIFA 11 for Wii is the manager mode where players can take control of a side in a more traditional football game style. It's possible to control formation, squad and transfer settings while also playing the fixtures as normal. There's also the option to simulate games for players who prefer a more managerial role. The only real stand out feature of this mode is the managerial aims, which if met can earn players game booster cards which help players to perform. 

The graphics featured in FIFA 11 for Wii leave quite a lot to be desired when inspected up close. While it's common knowledge that the Wii wasn't quite as powerful as its contemporaries, the blockyness and general lack of detail shown is inexcusable. The crowd sounds and commentary featured are similar to the PS3 version, with some of the more detailed lines omitted. The soundtrack is also much the same as the PS3 version and isn't bad.

Overall the Wii version of FIFA 11 is tolerable as long as you're in possession of a nunchuk and don't mind incredibly blocky graphics that make it clear how little effort EA put into making the game look nice. Streets to Stadium mode is incredibly engaging once you're used to its viewpoint, and provides an interesting RPG-esque take on football as a whole. Outside of this mode though there's very little to like, and I'd advice picking up literally any other version of the game for the "classic FIFA experience".

Rating: (Wii Version) - 66/100
Grade: C

Now to the PS3 version of the game; Lacking a Streets to Stadium mode, FIFA 11 for PS3 allows players to sign for whichever club they'd like to straight away in its main career mode. Having chosen a team, and played fairly well for a few matches I was surprised to find a email from the coach (the game's email system is completely unnecessary by the way) telling me that I'd been dropped because "my level was too low". 5 matches on the bench later (which literally forced me to skip each one and wait for a simulated result) and I was wondering whether I'd ever get to play the game again.

There's a choice of just controlling your created player or the entire team, which is an improvement from the Wii version but overall the game feels a lot easier when you're controlling the entire team; I was winning 8-0 regularly when I actually got the chance to play. Other minor problems like not being given man of the match after scoring 5 goals in a game, and a general lack of skill upgrades save for being emailed by the assistant coach also frustrated me.

Graphically the game looks excellent, and it's easy to tell that a lot of effort has gone into the lighting and general look of the game. The commentary and sound also are impressive and give players some of the most realistic football gaming available. My biggest problem with the game is that outside of exhibition matches, there's no depth to the game modes; I didn't feel compelled to continue with the career mode as my player's progress wasn't something I was in control of, and even with managerial options available, nothing felt like it was going to be as exciting as the Streets to Stadium mode featured in the Wii version.

Overall both games have a wide range of licensed leagues and cups to compete for, but exhibition and multiplayer matches are clearly better in the PS3 version. Without depth or real control of progression in its career mode though, and several small annoyances which could easily turn into bigger ones when enough time is spent in career mode, the PS3 version falls short of being an engaging football experience for me, and ends up being a hollow football engine that's good for the odd game.

Rating: (PS3 Version) 62/100
Grade: C

Game: FIFA 13
Console: Nintendo WiiU
Developer: EA
Release Date: 13th November 2012

While it's commonly known that FIFA games don't vary too much from instalment to instalment, I was still a little surprised to find that FIFA 13 for the WiiU is literally FIFA 11 for the PS3 with very minor changes, save for the WiiU touchpad gimmicks that have been added. While it's said that the games are constantly improving little by little (at least that's what EA say), and their metacritic ratings have been steadily rising to match that apparent progression, I saw no sign that any of the problems from FIFA 11 had been dealt with at all.

Because of the game's similarity to its last instalments I'd like to just take a moment to give my view on the ratings given to FIFA games. FIFA 13 for PS3 holds a Metacritic rating of 88, the exact same rating as Shenmue, one of my favourite games of all time. Does this mean they're at all comparable in quality or lasting impact? Of course not. I'm not sure how, but I think the gaming press need to re-evaluate their ratings of FIFA games so as not to just reflect the apparent slight progression between instalments. If it's basically the same game, then give it the same score. Simple.

Controlwise the game feels very much like the PS3 version of FIFA 11, save for additions made for the WiiU touchpad which are optional. Touchpad shooting for example, allows players to press the right stick in to bring up a goal on the touchpad screen, which can be tapped anywhere to shoot there. Touchpad passing allows players to tap for a precision pass anywhere on the field of view. Unfortunately both of these require players to take one of their hands completely off either the buttons or left analog stick, and considering that play is still continuing this isn't ideal, and I found myself ignoring pretty much all of the new additions for the touchpad.

While the WiiU's primary audience isn't exactly the same market that'll be buying FIFA every year, it's a shame to see a game that feels so clunky when controlled by the WiiU gamepad. I couldn't help but think how much I'd rather have a conventional controller in my hands whilst playing (although the game does support the pro controller). A combination of the touchpad controls and general control layout means that the game doesn't feel as good as on other platforms, thus harming the WiiU's image in the eyes of those who would play the game on this system.

Graphcally the game is excellent, but the same can be said for many of the other platforms the game came out for, as well as previous instalments. The commentary seemed to have some new phrases, but again it wasn't significantly better than in the last game. Overall there's almost no reason for the game to exist, save for making EA money. The updated rosters and leagues could be downloaded as an update pack, and a new instalment made when there's been a real advance in technology. The only purpose buying the game new seems to serve is online play, other than that it's literally FIFA 11 in my view.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Now that I've reviewed all the football games I own, there probably won't be any more football game reviews on the blog as they're not exactly my favourite genre of game. Below is a table with the ratings of every football game I've ever reviewed, and I think its telling that a game which didn't take the football aspect too seriously, but instead applied fun and unique ideas to the genre beat out the rest of the competition to take top spot.

#1	Mario Strikers Charged Football	Wii					B	76.60
#2	FIFA 10	PS2					B	75.30
#3	FIFA 09	PS2					C	72.70
#4	Pro Evolution Soccer 6	PS2					C	68.60
#5	Pro Evolution Soccer 2009	PS2					C	68.50
#6	Pro Evolution Soccer 2008	PS2					C	68.30
#7	Pro Evolution Soccer 4	PS2					C	66.60
#8	FIFA 11	Wii					C	66.55
#9	FIFA 08	PS2					C	64.60
#10	FIFA 07	PS2					C	63.40
#11	FIFA 13	WiiU					C	62.27
#12	FIFA 11	PS3					C	62.25
#13	ISS Pro Evolution	PS					C	62.2
#14	SWWS 2000	DC					D	54.20
#15	Pro Evolution Soccer 2	PS					D	52.00
#16	Premier Manager	PS2					D	48.30
#17	UEFA Striker	DC					D	48.20
#18	Euro 2000	PS					D	45.85
#19	90 Minutes	DC					E	44.70
#20	European Super League	DC					E	42.10
#21	World Cup Italia '90	MD					E	32.10
#22	Actua Soccer	PS					F	27.00
#23	Power Soccer	NES					F	23.20
#24	LMA Manager 2003	PS2					F	20.50