Best Video Games

Since video games became mainstream in the 1980s, developers have been looking for inspiration from the real world when they develop ideas for their creations. This has seen a whole range of genres develop from fantasy to space, motor racing to detectives, and even everyday jobs with games like Bin Man.

There are even games where multi themes get combined, such as welcome to Age of Gods at mansioncasino.com/uk, which combines the classic slot machine with mythology.

One of the most popular genres of games that have come out of this process are those that simulate real-life sports. Just about every sport has had at least one video game made about it, including Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis, Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball, and Caveman Games.

But the most played and most successful sports video games have been those that depict football. It is by far the most-watched and played sport in the world, with around 1 billion more fans than cricket.

It’s difficult to count exactly how many games there have been, but there are several hundred titles that have been released over the past few decades, covering every device from the Amstrad CPC through to the iPhone.

Of those games, here are some of the best:

FIFA Street

While simulating a whole football career is a really exciting feature that’s been added to games in recent years, it misses one important element of football. It’s not all about the big professional show and the huge budgets, football is just as fun when you’re having a kick about with your mates.

That’s where FIFA Street came in. Playing on small five-a-side pitches in places like Rio de Janeiro’s beaches and the streets of Amsterdam, the game felt much more like an amateur kick about than a Premier League game.

The last version of the game to be made was the reboot for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, it dropped the cartoon graphics and put the focus on trick shots and skill moves.

Super Soccer

Released for the SNES in 1992, Super Soccer is missing many of the features we’d expect from a game today. Since Nintendo didn’t have a license to use player names, it just used first names that would still be recognisable. For example, “Diego” being the Argentinian Diego Maradona.

The game had a tournament mode in which you had to beat all of the other national teams. When you did, in true Nintendo style, you faced the “boss” team which was called “Nintendo”.

UEFA Euro 2008

Released to coincide with the European Championship in 2008, UEFA Euro 2008 was a crucial game in EA’s football video game franchise. It was the first time we saw many of the features we have come to expect today, like weather that changes the condition of the pitch and celebrations that were unique to each player.

It also featured a sort-of career mode called Captain Your Country, which required you to take your country through the qualification, hoping to do enough to be made captain for the finals.

Multi-Player Soccer Manager

The Football Manager franchise has grown to be one of the most successful on the market, with a very loyal fanbase. Yet it didn’t pioneer the genre. One of the first football management games was Multi-Player Soccer Manage for Amstrad, Spectrum, and C64. While now, it feels dated and lacking in many areas, at the time, it was a work of art with many groundbreaking features like in-season stat tracking, injuries, and players that turned down transfers.

While some of these games may not be the big titles that we see today, they were revolutionary when they were released. They either paved the way for future games or were just insanely fun to play at the time.

Cockney Latic is an independent Wigan Athletic fans site and as such, if you feel you have an article, story or feature you would like to see on the site, please let us know.

We are always looking for fans which wish to put new articles on the site, whether they are one offs, or if they become a regular feature. If you’re interested, send your details or articles to us and we will publish them or get in touch.

The email as usual is editor@cockneylatic.co.uk.

The upkeep of the site is funded solely from the advertising on site, from our own pockets and donations from users, if you would like donate it would be greatly appreciated, click here for donation page.