IF you somehow got close enough to the opposition goal to have a shot, the direction of your effort was determined by a white arrow that slide up and down the goal line, that you then had to stop in the desired place.  You also had to make sure you kept the ball and that your player was facing the right way – this sounds easy in the modern era of responsive controls and pads with 28 buttons, but back then it was a freakin’ nightmare!  And that is where World Soccer shall stay – confined to my nightmares.
This is a shocking game and not one that I would recommend checking out, even for nostalgic reasons.  Amazingly, it even spawned a sequel!  Interestingly, in Scandinavia it was called ‘Anders Limpar’s Proffs Fotboll’.  Better title definitely, but not enough to save this game from the soccer sim scrapheap.Many sequels followed, as did ports to various consoles.  I played Super Kick Off a fair amount when it arrived on the Mega Drive, and always had a soft spot for it, in part due to the “almost, but not quite” player names.  Brian Eclair and Jamie Blueknapp being ones that stand out in the memory!The pace of the game is sloooooow beyond belief; the collision detection is appalling and the shooting and passing so weak it’s ridiculous.  Amongst all these frustrations and worthy of a special mention are the slide ‘tackles’ in this game.  Go on, give it a try and watch your defender slide halfway down the length of the pitch without getting anywhere near the ball. ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!A true multi-player legend, the action was fast and furious end to end stuff, and the popularity of the game can easily be measured by the fact that it was eventually ported to virtually every console you can think of, including the Mega CD!  Sensible Soccer must go down as a classic and in the opinion of many, was the first truly great football video game.