Super Soccer

Overview

A soccer game released in 1991 for the SNES, Super Soccer features 16 national teams loosely based on the real 1990 World Cup teams in exhibition matches and a tournament mode that pits the player's team against all other nations in search for the coveted World Champion Cup. Those who manage to beat all other teams find a final surprise as the powerful "Nintendo All-Stars" team challenge those who try to claim the cup for themselves.

Gameplay

The game is a very simple soccer game with shooting, low and high passes, a slide and a stronger shoulder tackle for defense as well as the ability to select the team's formation and composition from a pool of different players with different if barely noticeable attributes. The game's most innovative element is an unique view, positioning the camera behind one goal and displaying the entire pitch in a vertical perspective thanks to the SNES's mode 7. Due to the use of this view, most of the movement was straight up or down from the player's perspective and in the case of multiplayer forcing one player to run downwards into the invisible field "ahead" of him.

Trivia

• Some of the players found in the game are named after real soccer players like Germany's #7 "Lotar", based on real player Lothar Matthäus.
• In the same vein the colombian goalkeeper is named "Loco", referencing famous goalkeeper René Higuita's nickname "El loco" and with the added bonus of being the only goalkeeper almost immune to tackles and slides, effectively allowing him to actually try and score goals of his own.
• Being a pretty simple game, the player is guaranteed to score if they approach the goal from the very edge and shoot straight ahead into the corner.
• Known in Japan as Super Formation Soccer. Four sequels were released exclusively in Japan for the Super Famicom.