Sensible World of Soccer 97/98

From Kick Off World of Soccer - wikickoff

Sensible World of Soccer 97/98 was an unofficial update-release in 1997, made by Gideon and Dom Cresswell and various others, who updated team data. This package included not only updated data, also some updated graphics which turned Sensible World of Soccer 96/97 into Sensible World of Soccer 97/98. It was available as a download and you still can find it here on Kick Off World.

One year after, the same people made the legendary "97/ 98 World Cup 98 Edition", which was exclusively on the CU Amiga Cover CD in July 1998. It had the 32 updated World Cup teams + World Cup related graphics and it got the official support of Sensible Software.

Both updates were for the Amiga, no PC versions of them. But maybe someone converted it to the PC.

When SWOS (belatedly) first came out to a mixed response. Some claimed it was the greatest game of all, beating Sensi Soccer and Kick Off 2 by a mile. Others, myself included, were more critical. Glaring bugs and features had been left in or out. Most magazines reviewed "unfinished" copies (and Amiga Format had the gall to claim their`s was finished even though their review had screenshots that could not have been from the finished game!). Player values dropped no matter what. In general, it smelt. However, that was yonks ago, and the latest incarnation, SWOS 97/98, although slightly unofficial, has been here now for some time, and I`m glad to say not only does it patch up the original`s faults, it gives a few new features. For starters, the games takes much too long to load from floppy, but with a hack off Aminet, it installs to your HD and loads within 5 seconds, and there`s no more disk swapping when loading in edited tactics or careers either. Player values can easily rise (especially if you edit your tactics properly). And player knocks heal far faster than previously. Actually, most of these fixes were evident since 95/96. 97/98 contains new teams for many leagues, and some tarted up graphics. Anyway, onto the game itself. You can be a player/manager or manager (despite what the packaging says, you cannot be a player). You can choose to play a friendly, DIY cup/league, Preset Competition (almost any competition anywhere in the world), or go for the Career mode. Here, you can begin as any team, from the not-so-mighty-anymore-but-wait-until-next-season-Tottenham to good old Border Security from Calcutta. Yes, every professional team with supposedly accurate player stats is here. Here, you play a 20 season career, get offered new jobs from abroad or even international level, buy and sell, get promoted, relegated, and sacked. It`s all very compelling, even if you just go straight to the results, and as a season can take as little as 5-10 minutes, you can pick it up for a quick go, unlike the huge Championship Manager. One similarity with CM is the in-between season waits. On floppy A500, you`re looking at a 10 minute wait in between seasons, on my 030-A1200 HD, it takes about 2-3 minutes. The best thing about SWOS is the in game part. As far as I`m concerned, even without the managerial bit, it`s still the ultimate football game. You can do flick-ons, slide tackles, diving headers, lobs, all within the flick of a decent, microswitched, joystick. Multiplayer leagues are a laugh, especially when your opponent`s star striker is injured for a few games allowing you to run away with the league. It`s easy to learn, it`s accessible, you can choose from 1500 teams, and the players take their shirts off when they score in true, Paulo Wanchope fashion. There are still a few niggly faults, like bookings not counting in all but European competitions, computer players never getting sent off, and so on, but in it`s (probably) final incarnation, the pros outweigh the cons by such a large amount, I have no hesitation in awarding this game a huge thumbs up to any football fan. But then again, everyone`s already bought this game by now, surely? :)

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