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Soccer Kid, in North America known as The Adventures of Kid Kleet, is a 1993 side-scrolling platform game developed by Krisalis Software. The player takes the role of a boy kicking a soccer ball, fighting extraterrestrials who have stolen the FIFA Soccer World Cup Trophy.
Plot
is a platform game where players take control of the titular character travelling across the world to retrieve and restore the world cup from the clutches of the alien pirate Scab, who plans to add it to his ever-growing collection. By pressing different buttons at the title screen, the player can change the colours of their character's clothes to represent their favorite team. Each country has three levels that the player must navigate through.
Gameplay
The player character can perform various types of soccer moves such as runs, shots, bicycle kicks, headers and other sorts of moves to either advance in the level, get to hard-to-reach areas or eliminate enemies by using his soccer ball as the main tool. The player starts out with two hearts but by opening random chests scattered throughout the game, they can get more hearts. At the end of each third level, the player must fight a boss, based on stereotypical people associated with their respective country. However, the player must always explore each level to find soccer cards, which are crucial to getting the cup at the end of the game. Once a country is completed and all the cards in that country are collected, Soccer Kid is transported to a bonus level where he must collect all the food against limited time for a piece of the cup to be obtainable. If all heart pieces are lost, the player character is respawned on a determined checkpoint after losing a life and once all lives are lost, the game is over, though there is an option of continuing. Depending on the version being played, progress is saved differently.
Development
Soccer Kid was created by most of the same personnel who worked on the Manchester United series including programmer Peter Harrap, who co-wrote the title alongside Nigel Little, artist Neil Adamson and composer Matt Furniss, among other team members that shared multiple roles during its development process, while the overall concept was conceived by Dean Lester, in addition to also sharing the same game engine as with Arabian Nights, another platform game by Krisalis. Development of the project began in February 1992, when Krisalis co-founder Tony Kavanagh announced their plans for it early in the year and the team wanted to experiment in making a title that mixed football and platforming elements after developing several association football titles. Nigel stated that to assure such project would be playable, the team wrote a primitive physics engine early in its development and implemented real-life rules for the ball to react realistically, which would eventually prove to be feasible after multiple testing pases. Soccer Kid was previewed across several video game magazines early in development under the title Football Kid, featuring different visuals compared with the final release, which were improved from its original incarnation, while some publications compared it with Sonic the Hedgehog due to its gameplay structure and console-style presentation. The game runs at 50 frames per second, while sprites were made as 64x64 pixel objects. It was originally intended to be released in November 1992 but due to the interest in porting the title to home con soles, the title was moved to next year and faced constant delays prior to its eventual launch. The name of the project was also changed to appeal to consumers when porting across other platforms.
Reception
Amiga Power gave the Amiga version a score of 88% with a review by Stuart Campbell. He criticized the player character's moves as being too "fiddly", but praised the graphics and particularly the "fearsome" difficulty, saying it gave the game good value for money. He compared the game to the acclaimed Arabian Nights, saying it was even better due to the superior control and greater focus on platform action. The 3DO version received a 6.2 out of 10 from Electronic Gaming Monthly. They praised the "technique" and "excellent graphics", but said the sound effects were lacking. GamePro gave it a wholly positive review, citing smooth controls, strong sound effects, good variety of musical tracks, and exceptional graphics. Reviewing the 3DO version, AllGame's Shawn Sackenheim called Soccer Kid an "impressive" action/platformer that manages to be different as well. Next Generation reviewed the 3DO version of the game, and said that aside to its confusing plot, it did not brought anything new to platform genre.
External links
- Soccer Kid at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Soccer Kid at GameFAQs
- Soccer Kid at MobyGames