Sensible World of Soccer

The Good
The sheer scope of things is amazing - thousands of clubs to manage, through all their competitions in a single season or a 20 year career. The chance to sign players, which generally worked well, with part-exchanges being especially lucrative. The satisfaction of progressing up the leagues is always immense.

The action gameplay stuck to Sensible's loose-control style, which makes mazey runs require real skill and makes precise passing moves much more profitable. There are 16 preset formations on offer, as well as the chance to customize these in almost every way, with players taking particular positions when the ball is in particular parts of the pitch.

The DIY tournaments were impressive - any number of competitions can be set up, with each round working in different ways, either as a knockout stage or a group stage.

The Bad
The initial release was quite bugged. Your player values fell gradually, even if they were scoring a goal a game.

The management side of things was quite limited beyond the tactics. The other clubs didn't transfer players with each other, the players didn't age or retire, the emergence of new players was a bit fiddly, and the squads of 16 were too small. It's definitely better to think of it as an arcade game with management aspects, and nothing more.

One thing was missing form the game's tournaments - you can't set them up so that teams from different levels enter in different rounds, which is an integral part of many real-life cup competitions.

Unlike the original, the custom teams were quite bland, with lots of self-congratulatory ones, and too many references to journalists.

The Bottom Line
A combination of playing and management, SWOS features thousands of teams from around the world, both club and national. These can be combined in any way you like, to play individual matches or arranged tournaments.

The real meat of the game lies in the Career mode, in which you start by taking charge of a team. This give you full control over transfers and tactics, as well as playing or managing for every match. If you do well, you may get offered jobs by other teams. If not, you may be sacked and have to take a job at a lower team.