Football Madness PS1 Review

Football Madness is an arcade style soccer game that was released for the PlayStation in 2003 and was published by Phoenix games and the gameplay revolves around five aside indoor soccer environment that you can choose 16 International Teams that can also allow you to play in a number of different modes from single matches to leagues and cup modes. 

But the emphasis on this game with it being five aside indoor soccer, it doesn't play like your standard type of football games that you see primarily with the likes of FIFA and ISS Pro. Instead this game uses many other elements and even uses the use of power-ups to give influence to opposing teams and even players in general. 

This game would have also have a lot of elements seen in likes of Adidas Power Soccer and even later on the PlayStation 2 with red card soccer where you have the ability to tackle and pretty much knock players around and get physically abusive pretty much with other characters to take the ball off them. 

So in order to win the ball you have to be aggressive. 

You have to tackle them but you can also push them, even kick them and in some cases even punch them to even get the ball often so it's more of a brutal affair when it comes to trying to gain any sort of an advantage in the game. 

And while it has some good concepts and it does play decently enough for what is on offer but it does have many flaws and essentially this is really just the lower end budget style game that was seen on the PlayStation during that time and again this game was released towards the end of the PlayStation's life cycle and you can definitely see that in terms of the visuals and even just the control systems. 

While it is playable, it is very very clunky to play and it does have a very overly aggressive AI system that can leave it very very tough for players to even win games. 

You also have the advantage that with the features that are added into the game you can also also involve the keeper in many of the game's elements. 

The keeper can literally handle the ball and he can run out of the goals even down the pitch and hold on to the ball still in his hands like as if he was a rugby player and technically you can even do rugby tackles in this game. 

That's what it feels like instead of a soccer game, if he is more like a rugby game in a lot of respects to it the way that you tackle players because you literally just have to completely knock them of it to have any chance of winning. 

But in saying that that's where the issue mainly lies as although you can get the ball and you can maintain possession, the problem I find with it from the time I spent with it is that it's virtually impossible for you to score a goal against the AI opponents but they can score against you fairly easy because no matter where you hit the ball no matter how much power you put behind it, the players on the other side are always evenly placed to stand in front of you that they will block your shots or what will happen is if you do manage to get around them there's a chance that nine times out of ten the keeper will always save the ball no matter what you try and do. 

It doesn't matter about your tactics to be honest tactics just got out of the window with this game. 

There is none really as such it's just brutal in its nature and it's you just have to use every tactic in the book, dirty or anything devious at all that you can think of in order trying to get an advantage but even at that the chances of you scoring a goal in this game are very very slim. 

Even when you do manage to get a massive power shot and you do have to hold on to the square button to shoot so you have to build up the power in the shot before you can shoot but even with that the keeper on the other end will still save it but if they do the same to you and your end, they will always score, so it's very very unfair in terms of certain practicalities of the game. 

Now it is playable and for what it does offer it is fun to some degree. 

This game if I'll be honest to get the best out of it you would be better to play it with your mates because even the times there when I did take a power shot and you were left for an open goal and you're going to take a shot again and the keepers literally is straight up and saves the shot even though you have time to shoot the keepers literally up instantly and it's like he appears out of nowhere and he saves the ball again. 

So even though you have an open goal you may forget about it you will not score in this game. 

It's so clunky and just unforgiving a lot of times that it will frustrate a lot of players if like I mentioned to be brutally honest the only way you'll really get any sort of enjoyment with this game in general is to play it with your mates. 

It does have some really nice qualities and has some really cool features with the use of the power-ups but if you can't score goals you can't gain any sort of an advantage or you really can't enjoy the whole experience because the whole point of the game is the win but if you can't even score a goal even when you have an open goal because the keeper just keeps appearing and just taking the ball off you or saving it so it just if you do manage to score a goal it'll be just by pure luck. 

So it is one of those games, it's just it has some unique elements and does offer some really cool features but it really just lacks in terms of how it really plays and it's just it's very unforgiving that's all I'll say about it which is a pity because it does have some nice aesthetics in terms of taking qualities from other types of soccer games but the only the ones to gain an advantage of it is the computer opponents. 

You won't benefit from the experience really at all. You'll spend your time running around pretty much like a headless chicken trying your best just to try and not concede a goal but the chance of you scoring a goal are very very slim which is kind of a let down and it's a pity because it does offer something different that you wouldn't normally see in many other soccer games. 

But I would love to know your thoughts of Football Madness for the PlayStation if you have played this game at all yourself and if so what did you think of it. 

Do you enjoy the quirky nature seen in this game or did you find it equally as frustrating as I did? 

I'd love to hear whatever stories you do have in the game so be sure to share it down in the comments below and be sure to keep watching to see more content on other games similar to Football Madness, you can check out the blog where we will be diving into the iconic elements of these classic video games and as always keep those gaming memories alive...