European Super League
“I’VE NEVER SEEN A BAG OF MONEY SCORE A GOAL”
Recent developments in the soccer world led to Nick breaking out this Dreamcast release and having a little play
» Dreamcast » 2001 » Coyote Developments When I heard the news about the proposed formation of a European Super League in football recently, I was decidedly unhappy, as I’m sure many of you were. It was particularly unpleasant as a Spurs fan, as not only did it mean my club was part of a very unpleasant movement that betrayed the core principles of the sport, but I had to endure all the (quite accurate) jabs about how unimpressive our trophy cabinet has been. But this vision of a dismal future ended up causing me to reminisce about a more vibrant, competitive past – not in the actual sport of course, but in videogames.
You see, my first reaction was a stupid joke about this old Dreamcast game. I bought European Super League years ago with the intent to review it for my old Dreamcast website, but never got around to it. When I finally did play it I realised that it was essentially an evolution of Viva Football, a Playstation game that I hadn’t enjoyed very much. It’s not dreadful or anything, but if I want to play a Dreamcast football game I’m going to go for UEFA Dream Soccer or Virtua Striker 2 depending on my mood, so I ended up selling it on because it’s worth more than most old sports games.
But while I was thinking about it, it struck me that both of those games at least tried to have a unique angle on the game – Viva Football allowed you to play past World Cup tournaments and even pit historical teams against each other, while European Super League sought to replicate a concept that has earned a lot of press over the decades. Other competing games had distinctive ideas too. On the Playstation, Libero Grande had you play as a single player, while the aforementioned UEFA Dream Soccer included women’s teams – a real rarity back then. With the videogame football market now dominated by a rich perpetual winner, it feels like we’re long past the era when distinctive ideas matter – nobody’s buying a football game without Ultimate Team. Isn’t that kind of sad?