Full Review

16 June 2006 - Enjoying the football? Thought so, so what better timing then for Codemasters to release a revamped, remade version of its classic footie game: Sensible Soccer.

Rather than going down the realism route of EA's Fifa World Cup or Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer Codemasters has based Sensible Soccer 2006 in the world of "pick up and play" fun.

Before you panic, that doesn't mean it has gone all "Speedball" on you, although the top down gameplay will bring back fond memories.

Now, when we say its all about "pick up and play" gaming, that's because there are just four keys to learn and nothing more. Shoot, pass, run and of course the directional joystick.

With easy controls comes easy gaming and the matches are fast paced, but simple.

Those looking for a bit of three-dimension action will be pleased to hear that the cutscenes and replays are just that and in keeping with the game all the cartoon players have overly large heads.

When it comes to gameplay, you can have up to four players playing at once in any game. Beyond that, choices include friendly, tournament and DIY tournament where you can make your own tournament up with however many teams and what specific teams if you're not fussed with seeing if you can do better in the World Cup.

Of course the teams are just there to give you a feel for who you want to play and without the Fifa licence real life players such as Lampard and Gerrard become Lemperd and Garrerd.

Where it sometimes causes annoyance in games that are trying to emulate real-life as much as possible, here we found that it didn't really matter. Afterall, all we were concerned about was getting the little red guy to get it past the little yellow guy (we were playing England vs Brazil and losing at that point).

VERDICT
While Sensible Soccer 2006 is a great memory trip, it is not without its foibles, mainly that there isn't any commentary and once you get past the gameplay - the graphics are as if they came straight from the Amiga, the computer Sensible Soccer first debuted on.

Furthermore, we were surprised that considering the lack of mind blowing next generation graphics the game still took and incredibly long time to load inbetween matches.

Qibbles aside, the gameplay certainly holds up and for lads wanting to continue the footie after the World Cup has finished, or merely after a night at the pub, this will bring back a slice of nostalgia without the horrible side effects.

Good clean fun.