Goal! Two

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Special features let you plan your strategy and then play your matches your way. You set the game length, team formation or even change the players in your starting lineup. You have also the option to switch on and off offsides, penalties and fouls! Well, who would actually want that anyway? There are 24 national teams that participate in a Super Cup Tournament mode, each with their own skills. You can choose any team you want and make your own tweaks and changes in its formation and players (each with different skills too). During a match you can shoot, pass the ball in a short or long distance and try headers and volley kicks. Long distance volley kicks activate a zoom-out screen through which you can view the whole pitch (though everything looks so small) in order to see were the ball will hit on the ground. Passing in this game is a bit tricky and needs practice. The game field is set on a diagonal / isometric (to give the impression of a 3D environment) and while this is an impressive perspective for an 8bit game, it makes gameplay quite difficult. The game gives you the option to change the controls though. Diagonal controls direct the ball towards the four sides of the field while the straight controls direct the ball toward the four sides of the screen. They both feel pretty weird to me! Control switches automatically from player to player as you move up and down the pitch, but this does not work properly and most of the time you need to switch players on your own. Another frustrating issue is that the CPU plays quite fast and passes the ball accurately while sometimes your own players respond to your commands a second later, so the game could be more smooth. The game supports a 2-players mode.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Visually, Goal!Two is pretty decent and the pitch has a good amount of detail in its pseudo-3D environment despite the limitations of the hardware. Players move nicely, but again, controls is the main problem.
The sound is decent, offering a few sound FX when shooting high or crowd cheering when scoring. At the same time there is a repetitive tune that plays over and over again.