John Barnes European Football

Released

1992 on Amiga

Releases by Date (by platform)

Publishers

Krisalis Software Ltd.

Developers

Krisalis Software Ltd.

Moby Score

6.4

#17,441 of 158K

Critics

62% (19)

Players

(10)

Ranking

#101 on Amiga CD32
#992 on Amiga

Collected By

5 players

Genre: Action
Sports
Perspective: Side view
Sport: Football (European) / Soccer
Misc: Licensed

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Amiga
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Description official description

Released to coincide with the 1992 European Football Championships, and licensed around Jamaican-born Liverpool star John Barnes.

The gameplay is superficially similar to Krisalis' previous Manchester United Europe title. The action is viewed from side-on and overhead, giving a slight forced perspective.

Unlike Manchester United Europe, only a small amount of the pitch is visible at a time, which makes the game faster, but makes long-range passing harder (perhaps to make the game more like Barnes' own style).

Control is precise and the ball sticks to your feet to some extent. The only teams included are the eight qualifiers for the 1992 European Championships, and that is the only tournament. You can play either as the nearest player to the ball, or always be Barnes.

Groups +

Licensed title: Athletes

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Trivia

Inaccuracies

The game proved to be overtaken by events in terms of the teams it featured. Originally Yugoslavia won their qualifying group to get to the tournament, but political events led to them being excluded. Group runners-up Denmark took their place, and miraculously won the tournament. Unfortunately, Yugoslavia, and not Denmark, feature in the game.

John Barnes

A common question with this game does appear to be - "who is John Barnes?". Well:

Born in Jamaica, he started playing for Watford in England in the early 80s. Over the next few years the team had huge success, largely thanks to the skill of Barnes and Luther Blissett, the management of Graham Taylor (himself the subject of a licensed Krisalis title) and money from one Elton John. In fact, when Blissett joined Italian giants AC Milan in 1983 and struggled, many people alleged they had intended to sign Barnes (both players were black).

Barnes scored a famously brilliant goal for England against Brazil in 1984 (although he often under-performed for England, perhaps he wasn't 100% committed). He joined Liverpool in 1987 and enjoyed huge success until leaving in 1996, by which time he was 33. As nof 2004 he does presenting work for Channel 5 in the UK.