Psygnosis
Adidas Power Soccer

Christmas '98, I wanted a PlayStation as a gift (back then often referred to in the masculine form, THE PlayStation) and as the first game I had in mind a soccer game. I had asked for "World Cup 98" because I had seen it at a classmate's house, but in the end, I was given this half-flop branded Psygnosis and sponsored by Adidas.

Of course, at the time the various Fifa and ISS Pro already had good realism, although far from today's standards, this one, however, was rather surreal. Starting with the simple movement of players on the field: they ran in a straight line, almost as if they were robots playing soccer, as if following an imaginary line or floor tiles, a static and unnatural movement. They avoided tackles with agility using improbable little jumps, stuff that not even the best Ronaldinho could pull off, you just had to press the triangle and it was done.

Then the shots were pure science fiction, with special button combinations (some revealed, others secret) you could unleash cannonballs that slammed into the goalkeeper's arms who, however, got unbalanced and crashed disastrously into the goal along with the ball for the most spectacular of goals; all of this clearly provoked hilarity. The same goalkeeper sometimes seemed straight out of a Fantozzi movie, you couldn't tell if he was clueless or pretending (or making a fool of himself), sometimes you’d lob the ball, and watch him pretend to dive; not to mention those rare times when the ball stopped a few centimeters from the goal line: he would dive at it only to get up INSIDE the goal with the ball in his hands, practically a comedy movie! I had found two effective ways to fool him easily: one was to reach just before the third green strip of turf after the center circle and press the square for a lob that, if done correctly, landed behind the goalkeeper without any bounce, the second was to start the lob exactly from the center circle, a lob that made a simple bounce before scoring, but this latter solution only worked on the spring or summer field.

And then there were fouls, the ability not only to make tackles from behind but also, with special button combos, to pull jerseys, push opponents, and deliver lethal kicks, real kick boxing moves; interventions that sometimes weren't even noticed by the referee, especially if you set the referee to "blind" mode, you’d even see the player collapse on the ground with stars around him and no one rushing to help, on the contrary, with nonchalance and indifference, they'd even step over him, stuff that if it happened during a real match you'd see the bench and fans storm the field and urban guerrilla warfare would break out; sometimes you weren't even sure you were watching a soccer match, it seemed more like watching a wrestling match, or worse, an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch.

So, what was "Adidas Power Soccer"? A soccer simulator? Clearly not, and it seems that unconsciously even the creator didn't want it to be. This game was essentially a mix between a rudimentary soccer game, comedy, fighting, and fantasy, it was halfway between a soccer match, a boxing match, a circus, and a fantasy film, each match resembled an episode of "Holly & Benji" where the game, however, ended in a single 15-minute episode, or a match between bachelors and married men played nevertheless in a real stadium invariably sold-out, little did it matter if it was filled with colored dots.

It is clear that if we had to rate this game it would certainly be negative, but the first game in your personal collection is never forgotten, I can't help but remember the matches with my father who in the early days always beat me, as well as the tournaments where he and I teamed up against the CPU, but also the beatings I gave to those who came to play at my house. Then a few years later they passed me "Fifa 98" but that was a different story…