''Striker'' is a
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
video game series first released by
Rage Software in 1992.
Later also for the
Commodore Amiga,
Amiga CD32,
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...
,
PC,
Mega Drive/Genesis, and
Super NES. It was bundled in one of the
Amiga 1200 launch packs. It was one of the first soccer games to feature a
3D viewpoint, after
Simulmondo's ''
I Play 3D Soccer
I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...
''.
In 1993 it was released in Japan by Coconuts Japan for the Super Famicom as , while the French Super NES version of ''Striker'' is known as ''Eric Cantona Football Challenge'', playing on the popularity of French forward
Eric Cantona, while the North American Super NES release of ''Striker'' was known as ''World Soccer '94: Road to Glory''. The Mega Drive and Game Gear versions were branded as ''Sega Sports Striker''. They were published by SEGA and developed by Rage Software in 1994 and released in 1995.
Critical reaction
The game received a mixed reaction from the gaming press, with some condemning and others praising its extreme speed. For example,
CU Amiga Magazine awarded the game 94% in its June 1992 issue along with the CU Amiga Screenstar award while German magazine Amiga Joker awards the game 64% in the September 1992 edition.
By 1995, Striker sold 700,000 copies.
Ports/Sequels
Ports
Striker was ported to several consoles between 1992 and 1999.
World Soccer '94: Road to Glory (SNES)
The
Super NES port ''World Soccer '94: Road to Glory'', known as ''Striker'' in Europe, ''Eric Cantona Football Challenge'' in France and ''World Soccer'' in Japan) was released in North America by
Atlus Software, in Europe directly by
Rage Software and in Japan by
Coconot.
The game lets the player choose from five different modes, including
indoor soccer
Indoor soccer or arena soccer (known internationally as indoor football, fast football, or showball) is five-a-side version of minifootball, derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arena. Indoor socc ...
, and then pick from 128 different international teams, all with different strengths and weaknesses. Unlike in the original game where the strongest or the most well-known teams had real names, in ''World Soccer '94: Road to Glory'' all the footballers' names are fictitious. Every
UEFA (Europe)
CAF (Africa)
CONCACAF (North America Central America The & Caribbean)
AFC
AFC may stand for:
Organizations
* Action for Children, a UK children's charity
* AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits
* Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution
* A ...
(Asia)
OFC (Oceania) team of that time appears in the game except for
Yugoslavia, which was banned from international competition from 1992 to 1994 for
being at war with itself. ''World Soccer '94: Road to Glory'' doesn't have a language-select prompt at the opening screen.
There are many options and features, for example, the pitch surface changes field conditions in outdoor
friendlies
An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...
; wet surfaces are slower than drier ones. Wind Strength can affect the flight of the ball, new
FIFA Rules
The Laws of the Game are the codified rules of association football. The laws mention the number of players a team should have, the game length, the size of the field and ball, the type and nature of fouls that referees may penalize, the offside ...
affects whether or not extra time will use the "
Golden Goal" (sudden death) rules - since abolished. Auto Keeper will, when turned on, make the
goalkeeper kick the ball upfield automatically after saved shots on target. After saves, the goalkeeper takes control automatically unless "Auto Keeper" is turned OFF.
List of ports
Sequels
A sequel, ''World Cup Striker'' (known in North America as ''Elite Soccer''), was released for the Super NES in 1994. It was basically a repackaged version of ''Striker'', but slightly better. It was published in Japan by Coconuts Japan and in Europe by
Elite
In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...
.
A Game Boy game developed by
Denton Designs was also released at the same time, in Europe it was released as ''Soccer'', in North America as ''Elite Soccer'' (both published by
GameTek), and in Japan as ''World Cup Striker'' (published by Coconuts Japan and endorsed by
Yasutaro Matsuki
is a former Japanese football player and manager. He played for Japan national team. He also worked as a football commentator.
Club career
Matsuki was born in Chuo, Tokyo on November 28, 1957. He joined Japan Soccer League Division 2 club Y ...
).
Also, ''Striker Pro'' was released in Europe and North America for the
CD-i
The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, data storage format that was mostly developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips. It was created as an extension of Compact Disc Di ...
. In 1995, ''Striker: World Cup Special'' was released for the
3DO. A version of ''Striker '95'' was in development for the
Atari Jaguar but never released. An entry in the ''Striker'' franchise was in the works for the
Panasonic M2 but it never happened due to the system's cancellation.
A year later ''
Striker '96
''Striker'' is a 1996 association football video game developed by Rage Software and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Saturn. It was also released for the PlayStation and DOS.
Gameplay
''Striker'' was the only soccer video game at the ...
'' (known in Japan as ''Striker: World Cup Premiere Stage'') was released for the
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
,
Sega Saturn
The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...
and
MS-DOS.
Striker '96 is known for being the first soccer game on the original PlayStation.
In 1999 ''
UEFA Striker'', known in North America as ''Striker Pro 2000'', was released for the
Dreamcast and PlayStation.
A follow-up, ''UEFA 2001'', was announced for the Dreamcast in 2000, but was cancelled in October 2000 when Infogrames was re-evaluating their Dreamcast support, and the game was never released on any platform.
[''Official Dreamcast Magazine'' , October 2000, page 29 ]
References
External links
*
''Striker'' (SNES)at
GameFAQs
GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Striker (Video Game)
1992 video games
1993 video games
Amiga games
Atari ST games
Cancelled Atari Jaguar games
Cancelled Panasonic M2 games
Amiga CD32 games
DOS games
Association football video games
Sega Genesis games
Coconuts Japan games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System games
Video games scored by Allister Brimble
Video games scored by Mark Cooksey
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Rage Games games