John Barnes European Football

STORY / GAMEPLAY
John Barnes European Football includes eight National Teams to select and play on a International Championship divided into two groups of four teams. All of the eight qualifying teams, and their respective players in 1992, are featured and John Barnes is, of course, on the English line-up. Being a predecessor to Manchester United football, Krisalis simply increased the game's speed by reducing the visible area of the pitch and added a number of new features such as improved pitch side scenery. The game also features diving headers, varying weather conditions and highly complex set piece. A nice addition introduced here is the lock mode of the ball: You hold the fire button while running towards one direction and point the joystick in another when you release the button and the ball goes in that direction. Also at the main menu you may select the match length, weather conditions or enable/disable the set-pieces of a penalty and a free kick. But, as with Krisalis' Manchester United game, the controls are a bit sluggish and it is hard to dribble with the ball whilst the opponents' tackling is precise. Also, it is nearly impossible to score when entering the penalty area, as the (computer controlled) goalkeeper truly dominates. The computer player is a too good to defeat and it gets frustrating when you have to struggle just to keep the ball out of your penalty area! So, this game is better in two-players mode as it more fun this way.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game requires a 1Mb Amiga. The graphics are good with 29-30 simultaneous colors, but with several issues like the players' animation that's rather "jerky" plus the rather small gameplay screen as this makes things worse to set up any really good passing. The pitches though are well designed and carry a variety of nice details. The Amiga version is more detailed than the ST and the action feels better (or let's say, is less "jerky").
The title music is a really cool "dancing" theme and the in-game sound is even better. The crowd is lively and the effects are fully sampled, while there are are few short speech effects coming out from a player like he shouts "Here!" when he needs a good passing!