Back around 1994 when I was around about 8 years of age I have fond memories of sitting at my Dad’s Amiga 2000 for hours upon end playing that great classic game Sensible Soccer. It was the best football game around at the time and no wonder at it. None of this complex button pressing to do a fancy flip and kick up around your opponent, just easy fun game play and Red27 studios have completely captured the old school greatness in their new release Awesome Soccer (available for PC and Mac).

It may not look like much if you prefer pristine graphics on your games but I can assure you the gaming fun you can get out of this is amazing with plenty of tournaments from Euro ’08, league teams and even the ability to create your own teams, leagues and tournaments from the designing of the kits right down to the finer details of your players. Alas this is not all your completely-in-control type of game as your players dodge and weave the opposition to produce great displays of goal scoring.

The reward scheme is pretty basic, up to 33 golden balls are awarded to you once you make an achievement in game be it scoring your first goal in a tournament to winning the World Cup. This is a good incentive to keep playing but I think more creativity could have been a bonus here as this was one of the only extra bonuses you get. The fact that you get to decide how long your matches will last is great as it means that if you’ve got a lot of time to play or not it’s a game that can fill that time. The fact that when you are playing you don’t get the option to view the pitch at a vertical option was annoying though.

The sound is not annoying and with all the sounds of the crowd and roaring cheers when goals are scored it adds great atmosphere to the setting. I will admit that the game is pixelated but this adds that old school charm  and I really did like that about it. I did feel slightly annoyed about the fact that you are unable to configure your controls so that you can set the buttons in a logical order. This made getting your players to do exactly what you wanted them to difficult at times. Although the great touch of being able to belt a ball in the goal from 25ft away and curve it in any direction on the way is handy at times, if not slightly unrealistic.

If you are a fan of the great classic Kick Off and the Sensible Soccer series, then you’re definitely going to love this. Awesome Soccer is fun and pretty simple to play once you figure out the controls and if any game can bring back memories from when you first started your gaming life then it totally has the thumbs up from me. It’s a great start from Red27 Studios and one that can be greatly built upon, worth keeping an eye on these guys to see what can be produced in the future.