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| Game Box |
Well time to 'tackle' another blast from the past with Soccerama from ASL Pastimes. Published in 1968 and billed as
The Family Football Game With A Difference, the game even came with a weighty endorsement from England World Cup winning footballer, Alan Ball. Quoted on the box front, from him, as "The best game I've ever played". Hmmm :)
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| Board |
Components
The game comes in a large flat box, similar but not exactly the same as many Waddington games of the same period. Consisting of board, counters, cards, paper money, dice and shaker along with a double sided single rule sheet. The components are cheaply made and the board itself is no more than a thick cardstock sheet with a wipe clean surface. No rigid board here.
Gameplay
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| Love those team colours! |
The game itself is basically football snakes and ladders. Starting at the bottom of the Football League Forth Division (remember this is 1968 folks, no fancy named leagues here) each player on their turn rolls dice, then moves or not, and then deals with the consequence of whatever square he/she ends up on. And so on...
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| 5-1 Home Win! |
Two dice are provided, one die is your score and the other is the opponent's score. On each turn you play a match by rolling the two dice. If you 'win' a match you advance three squares if you 'draw' you move up one square. If you 'lose' you stay put and wait until next turn. You play each match against nameless opponents unless as the result of a move you end up on another player's square you play a further match against them. Each match you win you get a financial reward from the bank, if you win a match against another player the loser gives the winner money.
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| Championship & Cup Points |
Once you reach the top of a division (or runner up position) you are promoted and receive a card from with a number of points on it. These range from 1 to 12 points and increase as you go up the leagues. You also get points from being successful in the FA Cup and European Cups which you can enter at various times throughout the game. These points are collected and the player with the most points at the end of a set time period (1 hour is good), wins the game.
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| +2 Goals with these! |
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| Money Money Money |
There are a few other variables that happen during the game, the most influencial being the acquisition of a star player. Each star player you have increases your die roll by one on every roll. If you have a few star players you don't lose very often!
That's about it really. Other than the fact it suffers from the same problem many games of the 60-70s namely that the rules are not that clear in places (remember Escape from Colditz?). Mind you with a game of this depth I think the trick is to just Wing It. I remember playing this game in the early seventies with my Uncle, it was a great game. Funny how your memory can play tricks on you, eh?
Good Points
- Cool retro football theme with nice board graphics
- Plays 2-6
- Plays for a set time rather than set objective
- Nice to see Victory Points in the 1960's
Not So Good Points
- Pure roll and move, no strategy at all, at any point
- No variety in gameplay
- It IS snakes and ladders
So votes from the Family
John 2/10
Joanne 6/10
Andrew 7/10
Overall average 5.0
Summary
This game promises so much and delivers very little. Yes I know it's 45 years old but even with my 'rose tinted' memory spectacles (reading strength only) on I was disappointed with this game.
My final reflection on this game are that if Alan Ball thought this was the best game he had ever played then he needs to get out more and buy a second game!
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