Reading: The 25 best football games ever
amazingly, that applies whether you ’ re controlling a stick figure on an 8-bit computer or a amply realised 3D mannequin with ultra-realistic stubble on a PS5. badly – we ’ ve shed real tears at a line of text on a filmdom describing how the opposition stick human body has barely put us out of the cup .
But then that ’ s football : it has the power to reduce differently sensible people to mere shells of their erstwhile selves. And game makers soon realised they were on to something good when they created the first footie sims, because in no time they were flying off the shelf .
As a result, there have been hundreds of football games over the years – indeed many, in fact, that narrowing down our choice to a mere 25 titles was near impossible. Arguments raged across the function – FIFA or Pro Evo ? Sensi or Kick Off ? – and that ’ second precisely as it should be .
so, whether you agree or disagree with our list, we hope it ’ ll spark enough of memories. Let the arguments begin .
25) Ultimate Soccer Manager (1995, Amiga)
For all of Championship Manager ‘ s statistical good, nothing immersed you in a mid- ’ 90s football world like the USM series. Transfers and team selection about became minor distractions, as you reclined in your position next to a fax car and Teletext .
There were advertising deals to negotiate, a stadium complex to build, and even bungs to offer the enemy. Yes, this was the George Graham era, when managers were blameless emperors, and USM put you right on the throne with a hotline to football ’ randomness darkness side .
24) Footballer of the Year (1986, ZX Spectrum)
People weren ’ t certain what to make of this eccentric at the clock of passing. Part management game, part board game, you aimed to take a kid from the old fourth division to the glory of cup finals and Division One .
success was largely down to scoring goals in arcade sequences ; chances were bought with ‘ goal cards ’ purchased in-game, and ‘ incidental cards ’ enabled you to delve farther into your young player ’ south liveliness. If this all sounds a bit companion, FOTY was a big influence on New Star Soccer godhead Simon Read…
23) Tracksuit Manager (1988, C64)
We ’ rhenium not indisputable how you manage a tracksuit ; unintelligent name aside, this Goliath Games attempt was an impressive management game with astuteness. You arrived just as your team ( England by default option ) had a black World Cup ( so, reasonably accurate ), and had to figure out a road to success .
Highlights were akin to the running comment you ’ five hundred today see on a news web site, and while that lacked ocular impact, it provided plenty of penetration into who was providing the goods for your team, and who to send for an early bath .
22) International Soccer (1983, C64)
This C64 classical was the beginning truly great soccer bet on. Inspired by the earlier Intellivision Soccer, it utilised a side-on vantage point, and had two seven-a-side teams battling it out for a chunky, pixelated cup .
Despite godhead Andrew Spencer not being a fan of football, he captured the feel of the sport, and squeezed throw-ins, corners and goal-kicks into the cartridge ’ s bantam memory. It ’ randomness besides the one football game where you can sometimes head a ball half the duration of the field – a bug Spencer noticed but left in because he thought it was funny story .
21) Match Day 2 (1987, ZX Spectrum)
Knowing a beneficial thing when they saw it, Jon Ritman and Ocean teamed up for a sequel to Ritman ’ s master Spectrum bankrupt hit. This time, the players looked a lot like bodybuilders, and the underlie mechanics had been appropriately beefed up : along with a far superior deflection arrangement, there was a league format, volleys, flicks and jumping .
Shot intensity was determined by a slightly awkward oscillating ‘ kickometer ’ and the pace was again dull, but this merely made for more strategic act .
20) Behold the Kickmen (2017, Nintendo Switch/PC)
Look, we adore the beautiful game, but sometimes it feels like the sport takes itself a little spot besides badly. Watching a gaggle of shouty adults boot a ball around a field for 90 minutes is enormously harbor, but it ’ s besides not that important in the expansive scheme of things. Behold the Kickmen is here to remind you of that .
This is football as seen through the eyes of person with absolutely zero matter to in the laws and rules of the sport ( or physics, for that matter ). Kicking, tackling, exceed, shoot, and scoring – it ’ s all here but dialled up to 11 in the most absurd means conceivable. In striving to make a accomplished parody of football, developer Size Five Games has created one of the most amusing and hideous takes on the sport we ’ ve ever encountered .
19) Actua Soccer (1995, PS1)
Its name and tagline may have been a scene across Sega ’ second bows ( “ There ’ s nothing virtual about Actua “ ), but Gremlin Interactive ’ s entitle was noteworthy for more than fair a bite of supercilious trollery : it was the identical first cabinet football game to offer amply 3D players. These were motion-capped from Sheffield Wednesday stalwarts Chris Woods, Andy Sinton and Graham Hyde, providing a level of clogger realism never ahead witnessed on consoles. The master featured alone home teams, but a Club Edition featuring all 20 teams from the 96/97 Premier League temper was released a year former .
18) Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (2016, PS4/Xbox One)
Having spent years in FIFA ’ mho trace, Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 last offered a genuine alternate to EA ’ s annual jagannath. PES 2017 was a slower, more consider version of the beautiful game, with less stress on beating players for tempo and more on affected role build-up play, but when everything fell into place and you unlocked a defense the sense of gratification was brilliant. Its lack of official licenses and a basically flawed on-line mood even made it identical hard to convince most FIFA fans to jump ship, and things seem to have gone backwards since then, but for one abruptly class PES ‘ s glory days were back .
17) Kick Off (1989, Amiga)
Dino Dini ’ s 16-bit authoritative added an ingredient that hadn ’ thymine very been seen before in football games : speed. The small players darted about the pitch like they were dosed-up on something decidedly not allowed under FIFA ’ sulfur code, and the testis was initially impossible to control, given that it didn ’ thymine remain glued to your feet .
But once mastered, Kick Off made every other football game suddenly seem dense and dated by comparison, even if it was at times the football game equivalent of juggling bars of soap while riding a unicycle down a mound .
16) World Cup 98 (1997, PS1)
EA ’ s FIFA series might nowadays rule the football gambling world like some kind of digital Sepp Blatter ( before all the chancy payments stuff ), but it wasn ’ triiodothyronine constantly frankincense. Back in 1998 it was merely one of respective games vying for the hearts and minds of diskette fringed teens, and it was far from being the best .
The former edition, 1997 ’ s Road To World Cup 98, had marked a big improvement though – while FIFA had constantly had the official licences, it last had the gameplay to go with them excessively. World Cup 98 built on that in some expressive style, keeping the free-flowing football of the previous style and adding in-game tactical changes .
It was all wrapped up in a slick World Cup skin that no other game at the time came close to, dispatch with comment and unlockable classic games. shame we had to put up with Chumbawamba ’ s deplorable Tubthumping every time it loaded though .
15) Football Manager (1982, ZX Spectrum)
Kevin Toms graced the front of Addictive ’ s Football Manager report, enticing you to buy the crippled with his appeal and byssus. And what a game it was : on your little Spectrum, you could buy and sell players, pick a team, and watch highlights on pitches with comically bombastic goals .
today, it all looks a moment primitive ( the C64 conversion was at least a bit pretty ), and so far its childlike gameplay remains amazingly compelling in an earned run average of over-complicated ( micro ) management sims. If you fancy a adam on your smartphone, check out Toms ’ sulfur remakes for Android and io .
14) Tehkan World Cup (1985, arcade)
Tehkan World Cup wasn ’ t the first overhead football game ( that award probably goes to Exciting Soccer ), but it was the first to make that point of view work. This was a debauched game, in character down to the trackball controls, and decent goalies besides ensured that matches were frequently delirious end-to-end battles .
The game very heavily influenced Sensible Software, and more or less came to the C64 in the shape of Microprose Soccer, but its bequest was actually being the grandfather to the great sensible Soccer series .
13) New Star Soccer (2012, iOS/Android)
In answering the wonder “ How do you create an in-depth career-long football game for fluid devices ? ”, New Star Soccer said “ You don ’ t ! ”, and rather served up a survival of mini-games draped over a basic model that wasn ’ t a million miles from 1986 ’ s Footballer Of The year .
Although a affect IAP-hungry, it became a mobile classical, having you balance a kind of hyper-real version of a young football player ’ randomness life ( Buy a car ! And now a tank ! ) with pitch-based exploits and the demands of a knob, advertisers and a shrewish spouse .
Its successor, New Star Manager, is more in-depth, but lacks the addictive chasteness of the original .
12) FIFA 10 (2009, PS3/Xbox 360)
Like a footballing translation of Rocky Balboa v Apollo Creed, the FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games slugged it out relentlessly throughout the ’ 00s without either landing a final smasher punch. Pro Evo was broadly the better game, but FIFA retained a strong stick to by virtue of its proper team and actor names and presentation mind. But with FIFA 10 that winning uppercut finally connected .
Both games introduced 360-degree player control for the first time in their 2010 editions, but FIFA 10 did it better, allowing you to expertly slide a pas through at just the mighty fish for your striker to run on to it. Or, more normally, for you to expertly slide a pass square to an opposition defender. Coupled with a wealth of game modes – from Be A Pro to Ultimate Team and Manager Mode – FIFA 10 was a more complete footballing have than any previous championship in the series and last edged ahead of its rival besides. And it hasn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate been toppled since .
11) Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (1988, C64)
A spiritual successor to Andrew Spencer ’ s International Soccer, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer was the death bang-up side-on football game of the 1980s. Brimming with options, advanced players could utilise techniques such as ‘ 5-direction ’ pass, sliding tackles and backheels, all from a joystick with only a single burn clitoris.
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The result was the first truly fluid football game, where you could string together some authentically breathless moves. The goalies were silent rubbish, though, natch .
10) Virtua Striker (1994, Arcade)
Sega ’ s legendary AM2 team ( besides responsible for Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter ) developed this groundbreaking entitle – the first football video game in history to use 3D player models. Being available merely in arcades, Virtua Striker was designed for fast and angered action over serious pretense, but for those of us who crammed countless coins into the cabinet, it was the most realistic digital appropriation of the beautiful game we ’ vitamin d ever seen .
9) International Superstar Soccer (1994, SNES)
In hindsight, this SNES classic is a bridge between classic-era side-on fare and modern football titles. A predecessor to PES, the original ISS offered a stunning array of moves – everything from feints to shoulder charges – when diverse buttons were combined .
visually, it was besides leagues beyond the likes of Match Day and International Soccer. Yet for all its gloss and brightness, what made ISS appeal most was its fun and delirious nature, retaining a very arcade sensitivity, in that brief time period before sports titles became wholly obsessed with a kind of TV-style realism .
8) Football Manager 2011 (2010, PC)
In its divorce with Eidos, Sports Interactive lost the Championship Manager list but carried on creating the lone management games worth playing – and this edition is one of the greatest, adding a full 3D locomotive that, if you were indeed inclined, allowed you to watch every single pass, stroke, tackle and awful goalkeeping error in a match .
Among the other innovations were weigh conferences – a small detail that served to add color to an already frighteningly real football universe that featured no fewer than 117 playable leagues .
7) Kick Off 2 (1990, Amiga)
Kick Off 2 looked an atrocious fortune like its harbinger, and it was in truth a combination of Kick Off and a couple of expansion disks, all carefully refined. But that attention to detail transformed an enjoyable but occasionally uncontrollable knockabout title into a product that demanded a set more skill .
Along with tournaments, refs with varying moods and – crucially – fewer bugs, this Amiga sequel dropped the pace and boosted the controls, ample use of ‘ aftertouch ’ enabling you to fashion the kind of dazzlingly audacious shots of which even Matt Le Tissier would have been proud .
6) Sensible Soccer (1992, Amiga)
reasonable Software were fans of Kick Off 2 and football, but were irritated by the former ’ sulfur shortcomings that didn ’ thymine – as they saw it – do justice to the latter. reasonable soccer was their attack to bring to gaming the feeling of how you imagined playing professional football would be, coupled with the kind of attention to detail only a truthful football geek possesses ( including correct haircloth and skin color for each of the players ) .
The game zoomed the vantage point out, showing more of the slope and enabling it to dispense with a Kick Off-style radar ; passing and fritter was simplified and streamlined and everything was done on the frame, making the game highly responsive. Until sequel SWOS arrived, this was the pinnacle of the genre .
5) ISS Pro Evolution (1999, PS1)
Ah, the Master League : equitable how many hours have we spent cocooned in your comforting embrace, steadily building up a team of honest pros and turning them into world beaters ? probably respective thousand – and that ’ s no hyperbole. And it was here that it first appeared .
Although at this stagecoach a relatively basic affair, the Pro Evo Master League even bolted a properly career sim on to an already superb football game. You could buy and sell players, but you used points earnt by winning games, preferably than money, and there was none of the complicate daily tend of the club that you ’ d have to endure in Championship Manager. alternatively, it gave you the opportunity to shape the team of your dreams, packing it with attacking midfielders if you chose, or alternatively making surely you had a Mourinho-solid defense .
While the Master League was a capital addition to the serial, it would have meant nothing if the gameplay hadn ’ t matched up to it. But in truth ISS Pro Evolution was already creeping ahead of FIFA by this clock time ; it was more realistic so far besides more playable – and that ’ s a winning combination in any game .
4) Championship Manager: Season 97/98 (1997, PC)
Sports Interactive ’ sulfur series looms like a Colossus over all management games .
Despite being derided by petty dullards as a transfigure Excel spreadsheet, Championship Manager ‘ s consummate tactical engine, reams of accurate data ( this was the beginning installment allowing you to run more than one league simultaneously ) and elephantine actor database wove together a rich, convincing football population that sat analogue to our own – and it fired the resource like no other game around .
And it was so, so addictive : the game ’ s official forums were full of tales of lives all but lost to Champ ’ s particular brand of “ good one more game ” -itis, or grown men so gallant of taking a lower league team to the FA Cup final that they would don a courtship for the occasion .
3) FIFA 21 (2020, PS4/Xbox One)
recent FIFA games have been all about tweaking a winning formula rather than any major overhaul, but considering the serial has been building from a leading placement since FIFA 10, that ’ s no bad thing .
While FIFA 21 only makes very minor changes to its harbinger and surely international relations and security network ’ triiodothyronine without its faults – defending is very much a junior-grade concern to scoring goals, there ’ south far besides a lot showboating on-line, and goalkeepers punch indeed frequently they must all be wearing butter gloves – it remains the best virtual estimate of the beautiful bet on. We can ’ metric ton wait to see what ’ sulfur in store for its proper next-gen debut .
2) Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (2005, PS2)
There are times in popular culture when a thing – band, television series, game, whatever – reaches such a extremum, you think it can ’ triiodothyronine possibly stay there. But then it does – for class after year after class. The Simpsons did that from about season 3 to temper 9, for case, but it ’ mho reasonably rare. Well, Pro Evolution Soccer managed the same feat .
That its standards did finally shed was inevitable, but it doesn ’ t make the aura years from 2002-2005 any less extra. We could have picked any of the four games from Pro Evo 2 to Pro Evo 5 and made a case for its inclusion. Frankly, we could have had all of them in this list. But that would be airheaded, sol alternatively we ’ ve picked the probable highest luff in a series of very high ones .
What made it so especial ? Just… everything. The Master League had by now developed into a proper four-division set-up, with promotion, relegation and a Champions League equivalent and there were even, last, proper player names. On the gameplay side, it was as fluid and playable as football games get. not quite as madly insane as sensible Soccer, not quite as gloriously detailed as FIFA 18, but rather a fantastic mid-way between the two extremes .
You could score screamers from 40 yards or tap-ins after a goalmouth scamper. You could waltz through five tackles, if you had a adept adequate musician, but you couldn ’ t get away with precisely running the ball into the net income. In short, it was beautifully balanced .
It couldn ’ triiodothyronine last, of path – but boy was it fun while it did .
1) Sensible World Of Soccer (1994, Amiga)
about 25 years young, SWOS is distillery top of the league. It took everything that was big about sensible Soccer and just run with it. You got the like fantastic arcade-oriented gameplay, but the style comprehensively acknowledged the rest of the global ’ second universe, with the kind of slavish idolatry of a true footballing aficionado .
management features and player trade were boosted by the inclusion of a whack 1500 teams and 27,000 players. It should have been the start of something great, but SWOS was somehow allowed to be eclipsed by FIFA and PES. still, dedicate fans keep the fire active with leagues, events, and patched versions of the crippled that incorporate modern data – the fantastic, crazy nutters .
Can it compete with FIFA for realistic gameplay or Football Manager for exhaustive statdom ? No, obviously not. And for many people, the classic mid- ’ 00s era Pro Evo beats it as an all-around football game ; it ’ s decidedly split this agency at any rate .
But for sheer “ JUST LOOK AT THAT GOAL ! THAT WAS LIQUID FOOTBALL ! ” gladden, it will never be bettered. Go on, then, good one more game .
extra words : Sam Kieldsen, Marc McLaren, Mark Wilson, Tom Wiggins
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