Game Review: Supercup Football (Commodore 64, Rack-It)

If you ask most Commodore 64 owners, the chances are that International Soccer will come high up in people’s lists of the all-time greatest football games released for the C64. While others may have surpassed it technically, the gameplay of Commodore’s classic set the benchmark that others were going to be judged by. So right from the start, Supercup Football had a lot to live up to…

Supercup Football – Getting Started

Released straight to budget on the Rack-It label, Supercup Football is a top-down football game for one or two players. First impressions from the screenshots lead you into believing that the game’s sprites have been inspired by Microprose Soccer rather than the more minute players found in the likes of Kick Off. But that’s where the similaries to Sensible Software’s classic end.

The title screen gives you plenty of options before you get started.You can choose between one or two players, renaming your player or any of the 8 available CPU controlled players and choosing your kit colours for the game. You can also adjust the length of each half, how long to allow for extra time should you need it and the CPU skill level.

One thing that is visible here is a league table and this is something I wasn’t expecting. Even though Supercup Football doesn’t seem to have any long form game structure, it tracks all your wins and losses against the different CPU opponents in the table. Should you have the different CPU players play each other, these will be tracked here as well.

A Game Of Two Halves

Supercup Football is viewed from a top-down perspective with the match timer being displayed on screen at all times. The pitch fills the whole width of the screen and only scrolls vertically, approximately three times the height of the screen. You control a single player at a time with the joystick using one button to shoot, pass, head the ball (by timing pressing the fire button to exactly the same time as when the ball reaches your player), and to swerve the ball left or right in the air.

These “banana shots” are probably the strangest part of the game as they almost seem to have a mind of their own, and instead of the subtle aftertouch seen in the likes of Kick Off, it’s quite possible to swerve a ball left and right while its in the air!

Who’s Got The Ball?

Probably the biggest frustration I had with the game – and one that made it almost unplayable at times – was the fact that player control had to be done manually. If you’re not in posession of the ball you either have to move your player off screen for control to swap to another, or hold down the fire button for control to swap to another. Surely it couldn’t have been that difficult to detect where players were in relation to the ball and automatically swap control to the one nearest?

Using this method meant that it was all too easy for the opposing side to score while you’re struggling to find a player anywhere near the ball. If you wanted to tackle anyone with the ball, it becomes a case of luck more than anything else to hope you have someone nearby.

The Ref Has Lost His Glasses…

For those of you who did play International Soccer, we all remember how easy it was to take posession of the ball by walking up to the other players and just running off with it instead of having to tackle them. While you can try that in Supercup Football the best way is to try a sliding tackle but this is probably where any credibility the game still had falls apart as a legitimate football title. Tackling to get the ball is one thing, but you can use this tackle at any time during the game on any player without any repercussions or without any fouls being called.

In fact, most of the rules of football seem to be ignored with the exception of free throws, goal kicks and corners so you can forget about penalties and the offside rule here.

Graphics And Sound

While the players themselves are nothing special to look at and the goals are little more than horizontal bars, everything moves quickly and the animation on the players is smooth enough, as is the scrolling. One thing I did think was a nice touch was an option hidden away when you pause the game that allows you to change the background texture and colour scheme used for the pitch. It may not add anything to the gameplay, but it does add a nice bit of variety to the visuals and I don’t think I’ve seen this in a football game before.

Sound, on the otherhand, is rather disappointing. Effects are quite sparse and ask for the music… fortunately there are only a few brief ditties that play here and there when goals are scored, at the end of each half and so on, but they’re instantly forgettable and I’d rather have had them left out in favour of more sound effects and better player graphics instead.

Die, Alien Scum!

One nice surprise is that Mastertronic made use of their legendary Invade-A-Load system for Supercup Football so you get the chance to play a version of Space Invaders while the game loads up. It’s a superb adaptation of the arcade classic, and with Rob Hubbard’s fantastic music taken from One Man And His Droid playing in the background, it’s a great way to spend a few minutes while you wait for the main game to load up!

Overall

With all of its quirks and flaws, what had potential to be a cheap and cheerful football game ends up being a frustrating affair. If it weren’t for the ridiculous banana shots and erratic player selection, Supercup Football could have been a great game for those on a budget. But instead, you’ll have more fun playing the loader and you can find that elsewhere on much better games.

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