Soccer Pinball
Copyright/Publisher: Codemasters, Design & Programming By: Steve Siddle,
Graphics By: Michael Sanderson, Music & FX By: Sonic Graffiti,
Release Year: 1990, Genre: Football/Soccer, Number Of Players: 1 or 2

Wow! Not only is this a pinball simulator, but it's also vaguely got something to do with soccer! That should please Bert Rawlsden, the fampus Yeovil Town striker and obsessive pinball fan. But will it please you?

I gave this an evening's worth of play and decided that it starts off as pretty addictive. You spring the ball up the, er, machine, and then try to flip it around into the other players and eventually the goal.

The pinball machine has a footbal pitch drawn on it, and your main aim is to stop the ball going between your bottom flippers. When it does (as it eventually must), it's a goal against you.

And you'll scream, cry and join a weird religious sect in your annoyance.

After trying to keep the ball out of your goal, try and score in the opposing team's goal. And that's it. Simple idea, simple background graphics, nice ball movement and some silly piccies of footballers scoring, crying, kissing, etc.

So it's not bery inspiring, actually. Pinball is frustrating, and you want to win, but after a while you'll want to go out and sit in the garden or something. And after you've forked out £4, you might do a bit of crying yourself (like a big girl).


INTRO SCREEN

FRAME RATE 53%
It's not bad, but it gets boring after a while, You can have cheaper fun by turning an old Mangold glove inside out and doing Srah Greene impressions for strangers at 10p a go.

I whacked him with a ball-bearing, so I'm not surprised that the goalie has got a bit of a headache. I'll do it again in a moment. Watch...