Sega Nerds

ATEI Show 2007 - Part 4 - World Club: Champion Football

Posted by Graham. Filed under Arcade, G, Review. Tagged with Exhibition/ Show.

Foreword: From here on in the ATEI updates will be of individual games from the show, they will be appearing in order of ‘greatness’ leading up to Sega’s star game of the show.

I’m not going to lie.  I did not get a chance to play on this game nor did I get much of a look at it, so no photos of the game from the event or videos.  The reason for this is that Sega had setup a tournament system for the game and one had to register their teams before hand.  Also the crowds milling around the game stayed at a constant high.  I can only assume that the registered teams were hanging around the game to see who was winning and who they would be competing against.

So due to the lack of information I have on the game, this will be a rather short review, including guess work and alot of information stolen from the games official website.

The game is a card based game, similar to that of the childrens games I spoke of in the last article, but this is alot more complicated and requires more skill and luck.

The game is much bigger than other games you come across in arcades, not necessarily in the actual cabinet size (though it is pretty sizeable), but the actual premise of the game.  The website is the hub of the games ’society’ its where ‘Club owners’ can register their teams for entry into the many competitions that are held and also register to be included in the ‘Super League’.  The game is a bit like the ‘Halo2′ of the arcade world.  From that I mean, players from around the world (though mainly Europe one would assume) can build up their teams and enter into competitions (official and unofficial) against other real life competitors and progress through the rankings to try and reach the top of the table.

What do you do in the game?  Well unlike Halo2, this game will not appeal to the majority of gamers.  One would really need to be a big football (soccer to you yankies) fan to really be interested or at least be a serious player.

To begin you need to buy a ‘Starter pack’ this will have all the necessary cards you will need to start your team off. The most important card in the pack (and to play the game) is the ‘Club Card’.  With this you register your details, your team name and team badge.  This card will store all your clubs data on it, so you need to have it every time you play the game. 

You then take your player cards (some provided in the pack- others you can win/earn) and place them flat on the games panel.  The game panel shows the layout of the pitch.  The panel can read your player data and position on the pitch. You also get team training and management options, where you can train your team and try to boost their morale and their skills in specific areas.

During the actual match your players are shown on a screen in front of you and are represented by 3D models and move around as though you are playing a normal football game.  You have several buttons in which you can control your team (shown in the following images).

     

It seems to me that the game is very much a more interactive and advanced version of the highly successful Football Manager games (also made by Sega) on the PC.  With the added bonus of the card collecting.  Back in the 90’s football cards and stickers were all the rage in the UK and many playgrounds across the country had kids trading and playing with their cards. This game seems to be taking that to the next step in a way.  Being able to collect and trade player cards to help bolster your squad and actually take them to the pitch in a proper match.

     

It’s a pity I couldn’t get a go on the game, because it would have certainly been an experience.

Display Impression: 8.  Game Originality: 9.  Graphics: 8.  Sounds: 7.  Playability: N/A (Did not play).   Funfactor: N/A (Did not play).  Overall Experience: 7 (without play).

 

From here on in, the games reviewed from the show do get much better and more interesting.  Trust me.