Kick Off 2

There is only one tiny flaw in this diamond though - a rare bug where the clock freezes, leaving you to play forever. But what the heck, it's not the winning that counts - it's the taking part. And there's no better place to do that than Kick Off 2: the ultimate soccer simulation.

Kick Off 2 is virtually the perfect realisation of the Kick Off system. While not recommended for people who found the original too hard, for those looking for a challenge, jam-packed with variety then this is it. The best just got better.

An incredible array of options, accessed by user-friendly menus. Good manual. Slightly improved graphics over Kick Off with different pitch types and 'designer' strips! Sound is limited to whistle and crowd FX. As instantly playable and addictive as the original. Extra fun with three or four players. The many options create extra variety - and no two matches are ever the same.

Spot effects, such as the ball thuds and the crowd cheers, are excellent. The graphics are great too. The action is all viewed from above, which works very well for a game of this nature. The sprites are well defined and wonderfully animated and the pitch graphics are highly detailed including observations such as muddy areas in the goalmouth on soggy pitches and a squeaky-clean surface on plastic pitches. The graphics and sound mix together extremely well and compliment play brilliantly. If you do not own Kick Off, go for this instead. If you do already own it or own Player Manager it is still well worth considering. This is the best footy game to have appeared on any machine and the beauty of the game is the fact that it just plays so damn well. Novices will enjoy it right from the start and it is surprising just how skilful a player can become after just a few short weeks.

As in the original, dribbling's hard to master but playability is ridiculously high. If you haven't got its predecessor and Extra Time, it's an essential purchase and if you have it's still worth thinking about. Probably the best sports game ever.

Kick Off 2 représente un sommet en matière de jeu de football. Grâce une jouabilité hors-paire, ce jeu de Dino Dini permet à ses utilisateurs de réaliser des actions élaborées et ce, avec une vitesse de jeu soutenue. Kick Off 2 présente aussi tout un paquet d'options et de possibilités inédites pour l'époque comme les effets de balle, la gestion des tactiques, la sauvegarde de scènes ou encore des modes avec trois et quatre joueurs humains. Les rares défauts ne viendront pas ternir le brio de ce jeu mythique qui fonctionne, je me rappelle, sur un simple Amiga avec 512 ko de mémoire.

When it comes to the crunch with a game like this it's the playability which decides whether it's a real classic or just another addition to the software mountain. Kick Off 2 scores highly on this front. The controls are, if anything, more responsive than they've ever been. More skilful play is certainly possible with the new additions. Kick Off 2 keeps true, for the most part, to the spirit of its predecessor. It may not be perfect, but no other footie game can touch it.

(page 52)
Kick Off 2 ist sowohl von der Ausstattung als auch vorn Schwierigkeitsgrad her eindeutig für die Profis unter den Fußballfans bestimmt. Die dürfen sich dann an einem Garne erfreuen, das kaum noch Wünsche offenläßt.

Now this goes against the grain of what the original program was all about. The fact that the player cannot dribble properly, made the speed of play and scoring of goals the greatest attribute of Kick Off. The speed of Kick Off 2 is less, no longer blindingly fast, merely quick, and goals are hard to come by. Sure, it is far more of a challenge and there is great variety, but I feel something has been lost. So there you are, there is a lot packed into Kick Off 2, and with the prospect of up to 25 expansion disks from Anco, you could be playing it for years. However, scoring is hard, far too hard for any but experts, and there are still some aspects of the gameplay that I would like to see changed. Kick Off 3 remains a possibility.

Nach einer Nachtröpfel-Zusatzdiskette ("Extra Time") und einem spielerisch eng verwandtem Programm ("Player Manager") ist der offizielle Nachfolger zu "Kick Off" endlich da. Die Fortsetzung "Kick Off 2" läßt sich grob als "Kick Off mit ein paar netten neuen Features" bezeichnen.

Nach der hemmungslos mißlungenen "Kick Off 1"-Version für den C 64 ist die Umsetzung von "Kick Off 2" ein Riesenfortschritt. Steuerung, Spielablauf und fast alle Optionen des 16-Bit-Vorbilds wurden berücksichtigt. Die Grafik ist nicht gerade schön, aber zweckmäßig.

I'm a big fan of Kick Off, so I was really looking forward to this. But it looks as though my anticipation was wasted. Pro Soccer is a sad sham of a game. The big downfall is the unconvincing collision detection and dodgy control method. At certain points during the game, the ball actually passes through my player, and at others, the ball spanged off in the opposite direction to the one in which it should have gone! Needless to say, this made passing and shooting a real hit-or-miss affair, and resulted in me getting bored very quickly. After what US Gold have done with Kick Off on the Master System, Imagineer should feel ashamed. The MS version even has better graphics! If you really need a sports sim on your Famicom, get Super Tennis and wait around for a better footy game, this one's very poor.

Im Vergleich zur lausigen C64-Version vom ersten Kick Off ist Kick Off 2 eine echte Wohltat. Trotz vieler Details und Optionen ist es aber nicht das Jahrhundertprogramm, das sich alle fußballbegeisterten Spieler blind zulegen sollten. Insbesondere die ungewöhnliche Steuerung ist ein Streitpunkt, bei dem sich die Geister scheiden. Vor dem Kauf solltet ihr das Programm deshalb auf jeden Fall einmal anspielen.