GOAL x 3 was produced by Visco games in 1995 and runs on the NEO GEO architecture. NEO GEO was very popular for arcade games and was also introduced to the home market, though the outrageous price at the time pretty much doomed the home version. In my dream game room I would love to have a dedicated NEO GEO machine at some point. Now on to the game...
Goal! x 3 is your typical old school arcade sports game, not much on depth but overall suprisingly fun. Obviously unlike home console sports games the goal of the arcade sports game is to suck your quarters up so in Goal you are limited to 2:00 minute games and if you end in a tie you have to use another credit to either replay or go to Penalty Kicks. For my play thru attempt I decided to use Argentina for their maxed out speed rating. The tourny plays through sort of like the world cup you start in the group stage and once you defeat the three other teams in your group you go on to the tourny bracket. My play through went relativley smooth with only one stumble in my second match against Mexico where i had to try 3 times to beat them.
See the game in action here:
Once I made it into the tourny I had no trouble until the final game against Germany where we battled to a 0-0 tie and onto pentaly kicks we went...It was an epic affair that took 8 rounds to decide, I look like a total moron because they kept kicking it straight and I kept diving out of the way thinking there is no way they will kick it straight at me again finally on the last one I figured what did I have to lose and of course he kicked it straight at me...
For footage of the epic struggle click here:
The graphics are suprisingly sharp as were most NEOGEO games. The colors really stand out and the animation is decent but could have been better tuned, alot of times its tough to tell exactly were the ball is and in a game like this that can be crucial. The sound is decent with nice crowd noises and realistic whistles and such, the only thing I would have liked to heard here was the chanting crowd that is always present at soccer games. As for controls this is the one area that I had trouble with, as I mentioned earlier the ball was tough to get a handle on and the controls didnt help here, when the ball is in the air was almost impossiable to strike it in mid air with any consistancy. Also all the players seem to be hooked together and the control will randomly switch from one player to another as the ball moves around, this can be frustrating as it will switch and have you running in the wrong direction and lead to some easy goals for the CPU. As for the AI, the opposing AI is quite good and they attack smartly and will take advantage of the control issues mentioned above, on the other hand the Human Goalie AI is very very weak and gives up a ton of soft goals on rebounds that should never have happend.
Overall the game was entertaining though frustrating at times. As far as overall arcade games go this one is probably a middle of the pack affair, though I give it bonus points for being NEO GEO and because it only took 5 quarters to beat it...LOL.(Hey its my review and Ill divy points however I want to 8) )
Final Rating:
4 Penalty Kicks out of 5
Play time: 30 minutes
Quarters Used: 5
Completed: YES
1 comment:
So I checked on ebay to see if I could buy you a surprise Neo Geo system, but they are over $100 bucks used!! Ouch. Tell you what, I'll pick one up for you when I have the money.
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