Four Four Two - UK (2022-06)

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The40 best football video games EVER

BenWilson

//header//

The40 best football video games EVER

BenWilson

Sports gaming has come on leaps and bounds since Atari brought

us Pong way back in 1972 – FFT ranks the finest football titles that

have surfaced since then, featuring referee dashes, Kebab Shop FC,

a balletic Tony Popovic and the much-loved Tonton Zola Moukoko

40

PES 2021:

SEASOn UPDATE

The end of an era. Before the disastrous

launch of eFootball 2022, Konami afforded

Pro Evolution Soccer one last hurrah. Alas,

this reskin of PES 2020 couldn’t recapture

the excitement of the series’ PlayStation 2

heyday, but some cerebral attacking play

and accurate likenesses still made for an

entertaining swansong.

BEST BIT A goodbye to the hallowed Master

League mode, in which you slowly upgraded

a team of pathetic no-hopers into a trophy-

hoarding monopoly.

39

FIFA

MAnAGER 11

The other half of gaming’s big two nudges

into our top 40 rundown under a forgotten

guise. Way before Ultimate Team became

omnipresent, EA dabbled in a bit of dugout

simulation with some curious results. This

edition incorporated the proper FIFA engine

for the first time, though strategic options

dwarfed anything previously witnessed in

that console series.

BEST BIT Seeing your interactions with the

squad affect morale – and sometimes cause

a media stir.

3 8

EURO

BOSS

A cheapo 1991 release that could be found

down your local newsagent, this Amstrad

management sim featured a novel wrinkle.

In addition to building a squad to dominate

the new European Super League, you had to

finance and construct an all-seater stadium

within two seasons or face the axe. Brutal.

BEST BIT Straightforward text-based match

commentary, relying on your imagination to

fill in the gaps.

37

n ASL

SOCCER

The North American Soccer League’s official

game is this list’s oldest, dating back to 1980

on Mattel’s Intellivision console. NASL Soccer’s

side-scrolling action could only incorporate

six footballers on the pitch at any one time,

but even so this represented a huge upgrade

from epochal-but-rudimentary table-tennis

pastime Pong.

BEST BIT The crowd roaring each time you

found the onion bag. Seriously state-of-the-

art 42 years ago.

Words Ben Wilson

FOOTBALL

VIDEO GAMES

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