I first played this game on the Amiga - but with 5 disks to load, it was a nightmare! Having recently downloaded the DOS version, it sparked my memory back to the days and nights spent whiling away on this game. You can take charge of any club in top flight from way back in the day, but don’t worry if the names are old because you can edit them with the editor. The fact that this is a fully licensed title is very interesting for many footy fans who remember the classic players, and On the Ball 2 does a good job of accurately representing these players.
As with most footy management games, you can buy, sell and fire players to build a successful squad. There are different possible formations and tactics you can choose from but still in a simple way which makes it a quick and easily playable game. It is the match day part that makes this game unique with many different scenarios other than just your usual freekicks, corners etc.
Without giving too many scenes away I will mention that one time I was playing as Manchester United and I had a game against Norwich - I couldn’t stop laughing my head off as Eric Cantona was through on goal only to take a bad touch and the ball was gathered by Bryan Gunn the Norwich goal keeper. What
I wasn’t expecting was Cantona receiving a red card for taking out his frustration on Gunn by stamping on him! How true to life!
On a serious note, the game is brilliant, with post match events livening things up with everything from newspaper reports to players’ discos gaining morale points! You can easily edit your stadium to turn terracing into all seater stadiums. You can even re-lay your pitch when it gets a little cut up. You can negotiate with players and sponsors to get the best deals available, but beware, too much negotiating may result in losing players and good bonuses. Beware also that the game came out when the old three foreigner rule came out so this can cause problems. Also foreign players are extremely expensive, how times have changed in the transfer market!
An enjoyable and simple game, I would recommend this to anyone who would like to be a footy manager and have a laugh at the same time. It’s not a serious game but that makes it more enjoyable. There is a stereo in your office that you can turn on to listen to music if you like and there are the usual match sound effects. You can save and reload too. Tip – don’t play "hard" too often or you will end up with no available players! Still a great game that I strongly recommend to all.
