Goal!

aka: 90 Minutes, Dino Dini's Goal!, Serious Soccer
Moby ID: 11222
DOS Specs
Included in See Also

Description

Goal! takes the basic gameplay of Dino Dini's previous Kick Off games, but updates most features in some way.

Teams from various European countries are included, and you can customise these by moving players around, and changing the starting lineups and formations. An Arcade Challenge mode sees you play matches against each of the five computer team speeds, in succession, until you lose one. You can also arrange leagues or play individual matches.

A wide range of options are included, with variable wind settings, a range of pitches and referees, variable match lengths, and the chance to play up/down or left/right, a choice of close or distant view, and variable computer speed and skill. All of these features can be combined in various ways with each other.

Spellings

  • !גול - Hebrew spelling

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

16 People

Designed by
Coded by
PC conversion by
Produced by
Produced for Virgin by
Graphics by
  • Design Systems
Music by
Sfx by
Team data compiled by
Manual by
Sponsored by
  • Adidas
The Testing Squad
On the bench
Packaging Design and Artwork
  • Funhouse

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 20 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 21 ratings with 3 reviews)

The best soccer game I've ever played!

The Good
Easy to access, difficult to master. The ball is not yours: you need little practice to move with it, but it takes months to master it. Player's Acceleration/Deceleration.

The Bad
Goalkeepers could be better!

The Bottom Line
Graphics & sound are pretty, but in my opinion playability couldn't be better. The only game I come back to re-play.

Amiga · by Fulvio Collodi (1) · 2005

This is the best soccer game I've ever played.

The Good
The gameplay is awesome. You only need one joystick with a single fire button to achieve all the soccer moves you can imagine. This is a kind of champagne soccer game. You can score a lot but there is many ways to do it and that's the best part. I even scored a goal on a corner kick once. You need to practice a bit in order to understand all the moves that are possibles, how to keep the ball, give an effect to the shot. It's worth it!

The Bad
In order to play, you have to load a team database first. This team databases don't work together and that's the problem. I give you an example: you couldn't do a national league and the european championsleague. Hence, if you had done well in your national league you didn't get to play an European cup the next year (you didn't get to play the next year anyway). But also there was a database with all the best European team of various country (the setup default one and the best). I remember that one could edit the database (import team, change player names, change jersey style an colour etc.)

The Bottom Line
From my point of view, it brought to top-down view soccer game as much as ISS brought to 3D soccer game.

Amiga · by Dr Julius (2) · 2003

The best of Kick Off 2 combined with some good bits from Sensible

The Good
The control system of Kick Off 2 allowed for some clever tricks to be performed, and required a lot of practice for the best to be got out of it. This was basically taken forward into Goal!, but most of the game's faults were corrected as well.

Set pieces can be played in a number of different ways, with a view line allowing you to set up a precise aim. The corners are especially versatile.

Real teams and players are now present, with several files representing the best teams from several nations, and one from Europe as a whole. Players can be easily 'transferred' between these, team lineups can be selected, and teams can be moved between files - which, contrary to the words of the existing review, effectively means you can take your team to play in Europe after a successful domestic season. Overall the detail of the player attributes and data is ahead of the crowd.

The range of options is amazing - especially in version 2 which has a fully definable cup competition to go with the leagues. 5 different speed levels, selectable for yourself and your opponents, 10 different refs, 4 different pitches with greatly varied reaction (thankfully not including Kick Off 2's horrid plastic pitch), wind on or off, view the pitch left-right as well as top-bottom, variable match lengths....

The Bad
The control wasn't as instinctive as Sensible's, and matches occasionally got bogged down in a succession of hit-and-hope play. If you didn't grasp the controls quickly, it was tempting to give up.

The Bottom Line
A follow-up to Kick Off 2, using a similar control system. This means that you can trap the ball (by holding down fire - release it to spray a pass to the nearest player), and pull off moves such as overhead kicks and diving headers. When the ball approaches a striker in the area, tap fire to release a 'Super Shot' - a great remedy to the common football game problem of finishing being too hard.

Alongside the standard gameplay modes, there's an 'Arcade Challenge' featuring five increasingly difficult matches, in which the margins of victory affect your overall score.

Amiga · by Martin Smith (81669) · 2006

Trivia

Development

The game was originally to be Kick Off 3, until Dino Dini left Anco for Virgin. To play up the connection with the Kick Off games, Virgin produced an advertisement for which the blurb was structured so as to highlight particular letters, which when taken in order spelled out 'Kick Off Three'.

Awards

  • Amiga Joker
    • Issue 02/1994 – #3 Best Sports Game in 1993 (Readers' Vote)

Analytics

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Related Sites +

  • Goal! PC & Amiga
    A site dedicated to Goal! Lots of info on the game, tournaments and such... please check it out! :)

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 11222
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kabushi.

Atari ST added by Martin Smith.

Additional contributors: POMAH, sfzdk, Martin Smith, Crawly, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 4, 2003. Last modified February 12, 2024.