''European Club Soccer'' (known as ''World Trophy Soccer'' in North America and in Japan) is a 1992

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

video game by

Krisalis Software Krisalis Software Limited was a British video game developer and publisher founded by Tony Kavanagh, Peter Harrap, and Shaun Hollingworth in 1987 under the name Teque Software Development Limited as a subsidiary label (beginning in 1988) unti ...

released for the

Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

and based on ''

Manchester United Europe ''Manchester United Europe'' developed by Krisalis Software is the follow-up to the 1990 video game ''Manchester United'' which had sold over 100,000 copies. The Atari Lynx port was released under the title of European Soccer Challenge. Gameplay ...

''. It focuses on the European Champions Cup. The game was a bestseller in the UK charts for three months.Official Gallup UK Mega Drive sales chart, January 1993, published in

Mega (magazine) ''Mega'', subtitled "100% pure Sega Mega Drive...", was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, aimed at users of the Sega Mega Drive and its additions, the Mega-CD and 32X. During its time as one of the main Mega Drive publications ...

issue 4

Game modes and options

The game allows the player to play

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

or the Champions' Cup. Options allow choosing game length (from 4 to 90 minutes), difficulty and player change control. ''European Club Soccer'' has dozens of teams from all across Europe (around 170), and each country is represented by at least two teams. In addition to correct club names, it also has recognizable imitations of team badges and kits; although more elaborate kits (such as those worn by

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

F.C. Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

Celtic FC The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...

) are simplified (Juventus have a silver shirt, Porto light blue and Celtic light green, to make up for the white stripes in each of these). Player names, on the other hand, were made by mixing names found on real squads. Portuguese teams, for instance, had a large number of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

n players in the early 1990s, and that was reflected by players with names such as ''Valentim Ivic'' (of

Valentim Loureiro Valentim dos Santos de Loureiro ComM (born 24 December 1938 in Calde, Viseu) is a Portuguese politician, and former football chairman of Boavista F.C. and Portuguese League for Professional Football. He has the rank of Major of the Portuguese A ...

and

Tomislav Ivic Tomislav (, ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, that is widespread amongst the South Slavs. The meaning of the name ''Tomislav'' is thought to have derived from the Old Slavonic verb "'' tomiti''" or "'' tomit" meaning to "''languish ...

, then

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

chairman and

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

manager, respectively). Names could not be changed, and since the game lacked a battery, it does not store changes done to kits and

password A password, sometimes called a passcode (for example in Apple devices), is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of ...

s were used to resume tournaments ( example of a password sheet).

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

are included amongst the English clubs despite never playing in the top tier of English football, this is due to the developer, Krisalis Software, being based in

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

. All other clubs have played in their own country's top tier.

Gameplay

Gameplay is simple, and works only with two of the buttons of the gamepad – "B" is used to pass the ball low, and "C" to lob the ball. While a button to shoot is absent, if a button is held pressed, when released the ball goes at a much higher speed. The directional button can also be used to give the aftertouch to lobbed balls and change direction or touching the ball backwards with the heel in low passes. Optionally, the "A" button can be used to swap to the nearest player, if the automatic option is disabled. The game puts several tactics at the disposal of the player, while the computer has a predefined tactic for each team. Each tactic has its own advantage: the 4–3–3 tactic using a sweeper is the only one that allows a player to recover if the goalkeeper is beaten and 4–4–2 allows midfield control from the wings, for instance.

Alternate versions

While ''European Club Soccer'' was only released for the European market, the Japanese market received ''J-League Champion Soccer'', and North America yielded ''World Trophy Soccer''. The Japanese port, as the name points out, is based on a league system with

J-League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

teams. The North American version replaced European clubs with worldwide national teams, but with a much more limited selection. The winning screens on both games feature a player and a goalkeeper raising the champions cup, which indicates the original title.

References

{{reflist

External links

Genesis Collective page
1992 video games Association football video games J.League licensed video games Krisalis Software games Piko Interactive games Sega Genesis games Sega Genesis-only games Virgin Interactive games Multiplayer and single-player video games Game Arts games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Matt Furniss

Game modes and options

Gameplay

Alternate versions

See also

References

External links