''Ultimate Soccer'' is a 1993 soccer video game by

Rage Software Rage Games (formerly Rage Software) was a British video game developer. Formed in Liverpool in 1992, its video games were marked by an emphasis on graphical effects with arcade gameplay. Rage's first title '' Striker'' sold more than one mi ...

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 ...

by request of Sega which even allowed their

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

, Sonic, to be featured in the game menus. While similar in name, it has no relations with the ''

Ultimate Soccer Manager ''Ultimate Soccer Manager'' (USM) is an association football management video game series for DOS, Commodore Amiga and Windows 95, produced by Impressions and distributed by Sierra from 1995 to 1999. The game was a massive hit in Europe (except ...

'' series, but was followed by '' Striker'' still for the Mega Drive/Genesis, '' Striker '96'', released for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation, and '' Striker Pro 2000'', released for PlayStation and the

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. While never published to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Rage developed other games for the Nintendo console, including ''

Elite Soccer ''Striker'' is a soccer video game series first released by Rage Software in 1992. Later also for the Commodore Amiga, Amiga CD32, Atari ST, PC, Mega Drive/Genesis, and Super NES. It was bundled in one of the Amiga 1200 launch packs. It was ...

'', ''

Manchester United Championship Soccer ''Manchester United Championship Soccer'' is a 1995 association football, soccer video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES. The game was released in Germany under the title ''Lothar Matthäus Super Soccer''.Eric Cantona Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Cantona is credited as having made Manchester United a d ...

and

Lothar Matthäus Lothar Herbert Matthäus (; born 21 March 1961) is a German football pundit and former professional player and manager. After captaining West Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup where he lifted the World Cup trophy, he was awarded the ...

) and '' World Soccer 94 – Road to Glory''. Focused on national teams (with a total of 64, all with fake names and individual team values), it had one of the highest option counts for 16-bit football games: up to 18 different settings can be changed, including ball weight, weather, surface, tightness of ball control, passback rule and perhaps the most remembered of all, the ability to play 6-on-6 indoor football. Several game modes are available, including friendlies,

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, ''Ultimate League'', ''Ultimate Cup'' (group phase and knockout stage) and ''Knockout''. However, the game lacks both

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 and battery save, and all competitions must be completed in one sitting. Up to eight players can play if two 4-player adapters are used. ''Ultimate Soccer'' is played in a field of vision similar to the

Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...

games in the console, a second-row view behind the players' shoulders that can also be tilted to show more field depth or more detail closer to the bottom of the screen. Player sprites, while small, are well animated and with small details such as dirt or water splashing from the players' feet (which would become one of the trademark effects in Sega's own Worldwide Soccer)

Gameplay

Gameplay depends on how versions are tweaked: lighter balls travel farther and higher and can be given zig-zag aftertouches (perfect from long range shots), but on the other hand, are more prone to be deflected by strong winds. Heavy balls barely lift from the floor which makes them more suitable for short passing, but are affected by wet grass. It's possible to score from any situation, including direct corners and freekicks, head deflections from long passes, bicycle kicks, working around the goalkeeper or pressing the defense and try to tackle the ball in.

External links

*{{moby game, id=/ultimate-soccer * Ultimate Soccer (Genesis) can be played for free in the browser on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

1993 video games Association football video games Master System games Sega Genesis games Game Gear games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Rage Games games Multiplayer and single-player video games