Goal! (NES)

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Herschie
Posts: 1180
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:44 pm

Goal! (NES)

Postby Herschie » June 13th, 2018, 12:01 am

This review is dedicated to my friend Enko, who passed away of a heart attack at 51 last November. He was my neighbor and friend in my old apartment complex, and he ran the pool. We would watch the World Cup and had some great times. I'll be watching it with a heavy heart this year.


Ah, World Cup season! Last one was 2014, and it was fun for me. My neighbor ran the pool in our apartment complex, and he'd bring his TV out there to watch the games. Often we'd have to watch them in Spanish, since we didn't get cable, and the games would be on Telemundo or Univision. But that was ok, after my fifth shot of whiskey and ninth beer, I was never able to tell the difference. In subsequent years, we'd watch the Women's World Cup, the Copa America, and then the Euro Cup. We had some good times.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing this game on the shelves at Toys R' Us, and Blockbuster. Unfortunately my parents sprung only for Blockbuster. I wanted this game so bad, but I was never in a good position to ask. Usually it'd be after a phone call home from the teacher saying that I had put an ant in a kid's milk, or I threw some kid's hat out the window on the bus. I never did have much leverage to ask them to buy this for me. I remember often I'd play "Ice Hockey", and pretend it was soccer. Really wasn't the same.

But you know, perhaps it was a good thing I never got this, otherwise I could only imagine the permanent thumb damage I would have sustained! I don't think I've ever in my entire life played a game so hard on my poor thumb. And it would have hurt because this is a good game! The controls are nice and simple, with A being a long ball and slide tackle on defense, and B passing and switching players on defense. You can go right into "World Cup" mode, although the groups match neither the 1990, nor the 1986 World Cup. I do think it's cool how the points are the same, where you get 3 for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss, then if you clear your group, you move on to the knockout rounds.

I really wish I would have acted better as a kid, because I really could have seen myself enjoying this one immensely. Nowadays I love FIFA, but back then on the NES, you could never have gone wrong with "Goal!".

When you score, a nice animation captures the excitement of a World Cup goal remarkably well:

Image

What the actual game looks like:

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VideoGameCritic
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Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Re: Goal! (NES)

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 14th, 2018, 10:05 pm

A heartfelt tribute! Well done.

CharlieR
Posts: 428
Joined: April 23rd, 2016, 8:04 am

Re: Goal! (NES)

Postby CharlieR » June 20th, 2018, 10:46 am

Great story indeed. I'm still paying attention to the world cup this year, even though the USA is not in it. Apparently, two teams scored goals on themselves yesterday.

I like soccer games quite a bit. My favorite soccer game is Super Mario strikers for the gamecube. So satisfying to slam people into that electric fence. My other favorite is Redcard 2003. It's made by midway, so it's like the NFL Blitz of soccer. Love getting loose down the sidelines and crossing in.

Herschie
Posts: 1180
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:44 pm

Re: Goal! (NES)

Postby Herschie » July 21st, 2018, 8:54 pm

This turned out to be a fantastic World Cup, and I think I might switch my team from Germany to Croatia, since I'm of distant German descent while my father in law was from Split, Croatia. The day they beat England to get to the finals, we visited his grave and put a Croatian flag. He would have been so happy.

In fact, the best goal I have ever seen, I saw with him. Anyone remember Maxi Rodriguez's goal in the 2006 World Cup in extra time against Mexico? My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, was taking forever to get ready, so I would watch soccer with him. But what a goal that was!

Interestingly, my friend who died was from Bosnia, so they both would have been rooting for the same team in the 1990 World Cup. West Germany won that event.

Tron
Posts: 870
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 8:02 pm

Re: Goal! (NES)

Postby Tron » July 22nd, 2018, 5:07 pm

I loved Goal! when I was kid. I remember only having two good ways to score though. The first was from the corner of the penalty box. Take a long kick and curve it around the goalie. The second was a one-on-one situation where a few feet away from the goalie you would kick it to the corner of the goal. Anyone else have some good ways to score?


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