As I was growing up I spent countless hours round at a friend’s house playing his Commodore 64.
Although, it is called International Soccer, the way of changing teams was basically just switching the joystick around and changing the kit colors of the two teams, so not really international there! This also meant that there were no names to any of the players, so this game wasn’t about idea of being your favorite team and recreating derby matches, or even competing in leagues or cups.
This is obviously a down point, but the game seemed to be more about just picking up and playing, especially against a friend.
International Soccer was great fun, with the ability to change your kit colors, and to move the joystick up and down to change the ability of the opponent team, or to have a good 2 player versus match. The difficulties got more and more challenging, and the higher levels would provide a genuine task to try and win a match, and made it all the more satisfying if you could.
For the time, the graphics seemed great, even though screenshots don’t seem to agree with that! There was a crowd in the background, with the scoreboard and timer prominently displayed, counting
down the seconds as you tried to get that vital goal to equalize or steal a last minute win.
One of the funniest moments, I can remember, is throwing the ball in from the bottom touchline, and it going straight through and the ball somehow going into to the goal!
I tried very hard to try and recreate this moment, but never succeeded.
While the game has very simple graphics, and no sustainability in the form of leagues or cups, the gameplay is addictive, especially when you reach the level that just beats you and it becomes a personal mission to beat the game at that level. And, as said earlier, for multiplayer, this game is great fun, and is a very easy game to pick up and play, with no special combinations to learn, so it is fun right from picking up the joystick.
I really recommend this game, especially for football fans.
