World Class Soccer

Year 1990. Italia '90. The heat is scorching outside, and I'm sitting at my 386 waiting for something to load. World Class Soccer by Tiertex came at a time when interest in football games on PC was still in its infancy, and the competition could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

It's an arcade football game set in the context of a world championship. You pick a national team and try to battle your way through the tournament to the top. The selection of countries matches the era's lineup — there are classics like Brazil, Germany, Italy, or England, and this was precisely the main draw for us back then. Finally, you could play as your favorite team, even if it was just a few pixels on the monitor.

Gameplay is purely arcade, without excessive tactical demands. Movement across the pitch is smooth for the era's standards, controls are simple — a few keys, pass, shoot. Nothing that would require a manual. Ball physics take some getting used to, and the AI of opponents ranges from passive to devious without obvious reason. The goalkeeper sometimes shines, other times just watches. Classic stuff.

What aged poorly on this game? The graphics were mediocre even back then, the Sound Blaster audio was basic, and longer play sessions revealed limited depth — after a few matches, the game showed most of its cards. Tiertex wasn't a team that went deep; they made quick conversions and games for occasions. World Class Soccer is exactly such a title — a football game for the world championship, functional but without the ambition to step out of the shadow of Sensible Soccer or Kick Off, who ruled the Amiga back then.

Today, it's worth trying mainly for a nostalgic look at what PC football looked like at the turn of the eighties and nineties. Don't expect a revelation — it's a time capsule, not a timeless work. But that's precisely why it's worth five minutes in your browser: it reminds you what we considered good enough back then, and maybe why we still sat there the whole afternoon.