SNES A Day 133: Goal!

Approximate Release Date: December 7, 1992
Genre: Soccer simulation
Developer: Tose
Publisher: Jaleco

Goal! might be for serious soccer fans only.

I say that as someone whose favorite soccer game ever is probably World League Soccer, a game that reminds me more of playing little league soccer in elementary school than anything resembling professional play. Goal! is trying to recreate real, grown-up big-person soccer and that instantly makes it less interesting to me.

My first match of Goal! wasn’t a great experience. I picked USA (because they had good stats and I’m a patriot) and chose to have the computer play as DEN (because they had less good stats and I’m not from Denmark). Turns out these two teams have almost identical white uniforms! The only difference is that USA has blue pants. This was tremendously annoying.

The game ended 0-0. I lost in the shoot-out.

In fact, I’ve yet to score at all in the three games of Goal! I’ve played. It’s probably my fault – after all, I know very little about the sport – but I didn’t have as much trouble getting on the scoreboard in the other soccer games. Did I choose a sub-par formation at the beginning of each half? Am I not passing effectively? Am I not properly creating situations that put me in a good position to get one past the goalie? All of those are probably correct.

So, footie-fans, if you’re looking for a solid soccer simulation, Goal! is probably your best choice thus far for the Super Nintendo. The controls are responsive and the gameplay never stutters. The only weird thing that consistently happened were glitches with the sound effects overtaking the music on occasion. But that’s as minor as a problem can be, and is worth overlooking. Just don’t ask me for any tips because I have no idea how to play.

I’ll be playing World League Soccer instead.

Tomorrow: Is The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse the last great SNES game of 1992? Or merely one of the last SNES games of 1992?