Reviews

Let's be honest, the majority of soccer games on the ZX Spectrum plain sucked. This, though not the best looking soccer game, it was certainly one of the more playable ones. Lack of sound is a major drawback though, most games are like a snorefest in all honesty. But on gameplay terms Italia 90 puts a lot of soccer games to shame. Worth a look.

A poor soccer game with mediocre graphics and very little feeling of player involvement. Sometimes it is even hard to tell who are you controlling and what are you doing. A waste of a license.

1989 Virgin Software (UK)
by Antony R. Lill

Better than Italy 1990 this is still a very average football game. Personally I prefer the lateral view of the field, but that's an acquired taste. The scrooling is very good but somewhat slow. The animation is also good but the graphic technique is fatally awful, and they should know that.

This on gameplay terms is one of the better football games on the Spectrum, but its flaws and horrible graphics are enough to discredit the game for what it is. Scoring a goal is random and down to luck. Your ball could aim for the post yet still go in, the ball could go past the goalie yet he'd save it, the ball could smack the goalie yet still go in, it's down to luck which kills the game's fun for me. I also never got on with the fact that you could only score when close to the goal and the screen changes, never fancied that at all. And while this isn't the worst in terms of its gameplay it sure is one of the ugliest.

Not without its faults by any means and it sure doesn't look pretty, but it plays better than most football games here and that's what's important.