Game Review: FA Cup Football (Commodore 64, Ricochet)

As a Manchester City fan of over fifty years, I have had a love affair with the FA Cup, from defeats to Shrewsbury Town, Halifax Town, and Oldham Athletic to famous wins over Ipswich Town, Manchester United and Arsenal, and watching them in several finals, including the equal highest margin of victory in the 2019 final against Watford and this year’s loss against a well-managed Crystal Palace side.  It has ups and downs for every football fan, no matter what team they support, and its knockout nature is still a classic to this day, although the FA’s recent tinkering with it, including not having the final at the proper end of the season, is hugely disappointing.  It was inevitable that a game would appear based on this tournament, given its stature.

The origins of FA Cup Football as a re-release are interesting, not least because Virgin Games released the game twice in two years.  The first release was in 1986 with the simulation elements all there and based on teams’ data for the last few years up to then.  There was then a second release in 1987 (with some inlays showing FA Cup Football 87) which had different managers’ questions and supposed improved statistics from the last ten years of the teams in the tournament.  Having done a side-by-side comparison, I can confirm that the Ricochet re-release is based on the 1987 version, so sensible to note which version you would have.

Absolutely Terrible Defending There

The game loads and you are greeted with a basic title screen, showing a small image of the FA Cup itself and the England badge, along with how many players you would like to choose from – one to eight.  After entering the players’ initials, you then must select your teams.  This can be up to ten teams which means that if all eight play, as many as eighty teams could potentially be selectable.  You can if you wish enter your own teams if you want – so say for example you wanted to enter some more recent giantkillers or those now in the Football League, but bear in mind the era and the likes of Altrincham at the time were one of the great FA Cup upset teams from non-league.  Once you have all selected your teams, you can choose whether to start from round three, and if not, round one.

Number One, Arsenal, Will Play Number Two, Aston Villa

The draw unfortunately cannot be sped up, so you are having to wait around for all the balls to be drawn, with two balls rolling across the top of the screen and then showing the teams drawn, and this scrolls up from the bottom of the screen.  It might have been good to draw one ball at a time and show the home team, then the away after that rather than both together.  Any team you are managing are shown by the initials you entered earlier, and because of the random nature of the draw, potentially you could play another team you manage, or indeed someone else’s team.  I did manage to see that Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur was drawn out on one play, which I can imagine would be a tasty game to be at.

Tactical Team Talk

Once the draw has been made, the game cycles through each of the matches.  If the two opponents are computer controlled, it skips until a match has a player’s team.  You simply select the formation whether it be defensive (4-4-2), balanced (4-3-3) or attacking (4-2-4) – and that is pretty much it in the earlier rounds as you cannot change tactics during the match.  Once everyone has selected their formations, the game goes to the matches and this is where there is more tedium unfortunately in store.

We’re Losing Two Nil to Bournemouth, Nicola!

The screen shows eight fixtures at a time, and you can press X to cycle through the screens.  The games’ clock updates by thirty seconds each time, and the goals update as they go in.   You can thankfully hold down the space bar to speed things up, which you will need to do to avoid more boredom setting in.  Often the more seeded opponent, based on all the statistics and weighting fed into the game, will take an early lead and extend it, and sometimes it can be almost random as to when the goals go in.  I saw Queens Park Rangers come back from 3-1 down to win 5-3 in the last fifteen minutes.   There are also replays to contend with – yes there was a time when these existed – and in fact in some cases even a second replay.  Unfortunately, if there are just computer teams left to battle through a replay or two, you still must watch them anyway which makes for much slower gameplay.

We’re The Famous (insert club here) and We’re off to Wembley

Round by round the draws are made, inevitably quicker as less teams, and you get to choose your tactics once again.  However, in the fourth and fifth round, you can change tactics at half time, which helps a little.  You also get some headlines such as “the pitch is in perfect condition” or “the manager has made a trip to the USA at the club’s expense” and plenty of other seemingly random events.  Not sure if they make any difference at all to the game play.  From the fifth round onwards, you get “Manager’s questions” with a scenario and three possible answers – simply choose the answer as to what you would do under the circumstances.  It feels like an added afterthought of sorts here and can detract a little from the main gameplay, and some of those questions also have spelling mistakes – which is unacceptable.

Derby Day Delight

From the sixth round onwards, tactical changes happen midway through each half as well as at half time.  You can midway through the second half make a substitution too which may make all the difference to bring on some fresh legs for the end.   That does at least give you some more control, but still feels like not enough to do to influence the result.   In fact, one sixth round tie went to an epic second replay (well it was Everton versus Liverpool, so perhaps no surprise) so a formation change may have at least influenced the result one way or another.  It did at least mean some level of excitement but also having to sit through three games was not that entertaining either.

Abide With Me

The semi-finals follow the same pattern of tactical changes as the sixth round, with some more of those manager’s questions before the start of play.  Once the semi-finals are done, it is off to Wembley Stadium (that is, the old Wembley of course) with a miniscule representation of the game whilst a version of the traditional hymn Abide with Me plays (and one I have sung at Wembley myself in finals, which just feels right somehow.)  Once that is done, and with a weather report showing the game conditions, the final starts.  You cannot fast forward at any time here unfortunately, so it is a case of watching the proverbial paint dry as the time ticks over.

Final Flourish

There is some more commentary type text on the game itself such as “Both teams are playing the ball wide to avoid the pool of mud in the centre of the field” with a supposed insight into how BBC and ITV may have covered the game back then.  Again, you have the same tactical changes as the sixth round onwards, and a bit more commentary as you go.   Once the game ends, provided there is no replay, the game flashes the border in different colours and proclaims the winners.  And that is it.  Pressing a key goes back to the start for another go, but to be honest it feels that slow that it is the off button you may be reaching for instead.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in FA Cup Football are poor.  The standard Commodore system font has been used for most of the gameplay screens, with only the draw screens showing the teams in much better double height characters and the balls being drawn scrolling across the screen.  The visual representation of Wembley is like watching the FA Cup final on a tiny hand-held television set – not very well defined at all.  The FA Cup itself and the England badge seem to be drawn okay.  Sound is just the odd tone to indicate a key press of some sort, and that is it apart from the small monotone rendition of Abide with Me for the final itself.  Not a lot of thought gone into either, sadly.

Final Thoughts

You could see what they were trying to do with FA Cup Football, make it a less serious management game but still have some elements to influence the score.  To me it felt more like what started out as a board game converted badly to a home system.  Some basic highlights of the games your teams play in as say in Football Manager may have heightened the excitement a little, and the need to fast forward through rounds that have zero commentary to excite, unlike say the superb Tracksuit Manager, really does add to the tedium and dullness of the game here.  I was also able to win the FA Cup on my first go, which adds nothing much in terms of longevity either.  It just does not feel like a game that was even worth the reduced price here, never mind at full price.  Even hardcore football fans would be well advised to steer clear of this and go and watch a local game in the lower leagues instead.

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