223: Manchester United Europe

Number 223
(6.2 points)
Manchester United Europe
1992: 70

Making a football game based on a single team seems a little strange in hindsight, but things were different in those days.

Shortly before Manchester United began to dominate domestic football, Krisalis made a football game based entirely around the club. In the single-player mode, you can take part in any of the three European championships of the time, with the caveat that you must play as the Red Devils. There is no league option, so other than the ability to rearrange your team lineup, options are limited. The in-game experience is similarly basic, taking place from a side-on perspective.

Good lord, where to begin? Football games have long been a speciality for me, and I've played most games released on almost every system you can imagine, and I don't remember many as frustrating as this one. The presentation is just the start of it: only Manchester United themselves have proper player names, and every player is white with dark hair (seeing Paul Ince like this was amusing for me). Then you start playing, and it's a nightmare. The CPU opponent is relentless, while your teammates don't seem to have any sensible logic in their movement, so passing to them is almost impossible. Furthermore, the game uses an infuriating 'aftertouch' system, which involves memorising different directions to do different things (pushing left sends a power shot right, while pushing right sends a power shot left). It's completely unintuitive, unlike other games like Sensible Soccer. I'm amazed that the game not only got a high score, but also made it to this list, as there are many better football games on the system.

Recommended TOSEC disk(s):
Manchester United Europe v2.1 (1991)(Krisalis)(M5)[cr AFL]