For those of us who remember, Sensible Software’s Sensible Soccer was nothing less than a revelation in the world of PC soccer. It was nothing less than a gaming breakthrough, its speed, control and playability ensuring that it remains to this day one of the greatest soccer games ever produced.

So let’s go back to the beginning – 1992 and the release of the first version of Sensible Soccer for the Amiga and the Atari ST.  Ponderous players who wandered off in the wrong direction and kicked the ball backwards were now a thing of the past.  Sensi’s fast moving sprites had the ability to quickly pass the ball to a team mate, to foul with sufficient seriousness to get red carded and best of all, could shoot from literally anywhere.

Dozens of teams were available to choose from, featuring player names altered slightly from their real life versions.  Our favourites though were always the fantasy teams such as the Dead Rock Stars and the Necrophiliacs.  Various other Sensible Soccer versions were released over the subsequent years and the ones that stuck to the early formulas were mostly just as good.

So let’s have look at some of the best bits of Sensible Soccer from over the years.

First this effort demonstrates some of the realism of the game as the ball makes it from one goalkeeper to the goal at the other end without touching the ground.  Classic!

Now a staple of Sensi games, the wallop from the half way line into the top corner.

Unfortunately what I’ve been unable to find are any examples of the header from the half way line. A classic of the genre, a strong necked player would leap like a salmon and the ball would flypast the goalkeeper, rooted to the spot. However there’s still plenty of good examples of superb goals, witness this next couple:

The last one is the sliding tackle to score a goal, with just a suspicion of offside. A classic game and one which still has a few years left in in.