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Commodore didn't do third-party developers any favors when it released International Soccer (Cup Final in some markets) so soon after the C64's release. Although not perfect by any means, the gameplay is smooth and pleasant, like a reliable, broken-in shoe. Successors had a high bar to clear, frequently missing the target.
Five A Side simulates small-squad indoor soccer action. You may play head-to-head, or against the CPU. The game is two five-minute halves (cannot be changed) between a blue squad and a yellow/red squad (which, the Anirog version tells us, may be the "Dynamos" and the "Rangers.") Rules enforcement is pretty light--no offsides, no fouls for contact with the goalie, etc. Drone AI can be pretty lamentable--your striker will sometimes simply run away from the play, leaving you all alone. Strategic World Cup-grade action, this is not.
Fouls can be earned for really egregious tripping fouls (typically tackling a player away from the ball will do it, but you can get rung up while playing the ball as well). A minor foul results in a kickoff by the aggrieved team. It is even possible to start a fight after a foul--a quick punching fest on the pitch. Fighting results in a penalty kick
for both teams.
For penalty kicks, the screen switches to the shooter's perspective. Despite the sluggish ball movement, I found defending penalty kicks to be rather fiddly. The game does allow you to practice in a penalty kick-only mode to perfect the technique.
Five A Side observes the convention of putting the goalie under player control simultaneous with a defender while the goalie is on-screen. However, the goalie moves much faster than the regular players. This offers you the chance to make a lightning save, true--but it also means you're liable to put the goalie well out of position as you try to guide the defender to interrupt the shot from happening in the first place.
There are other strange design quirks. For example, the angled design of the pitch, while correct for perspective, effectively nullifies one of your diagonal shot opportunities--the diagonal will instead move parallel to the goal line. This means, depending on the side of the field, the top or bottom half of the screen is effectively unable to get a shot on goal.
Some good ideas and enough action and variety make Five a Side fun for head-to-head action. Against the CPU, you'll soon become either bored or frustrated. Chalk up another victim of International Soccer.
There is a slight difference between the Anirog Advantage and Mastertronic releases. The latter does not sing "Here we go" before kickoff, and has higher quality speech for scores and penalties. The Mastertronic version is, therefore, the recommended of the two.
Downloads: Music
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| GRAPHICS - 5/10 |
Cheap and cheerful, but well-articulated in a cartoonish manner.
| | SOUND - 5/10 |
Minimal, but the digitized speech played for scores and penalties is a nice touch. The Mastertronic release has crisper speech and doesn't make you sit through the kickoff song. The Anirog version's audio is a cheese grater across the ears.
| | PLAYABILITY - 6/10 |
Players are responsive, the game moves at a brisk pace and the penalty kicks break things up. But player switching and goalie control are frustrating.
| | OVERALL - 5/10 |
Although it has its charms, it doesn't surpass the classic International Soccer/Cup Final.
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