World Cup Soccer `94:

That's the World Cup tournament we're talking about, the 1994 one held in the United States. It was based in cities across the country, and the mascot for the tournament was the doggy you see below, named Striker.

Striker crops up throughout this game, mainly in the dot-matrix animations, since all the quotes are from a commentator. Being American, there are quite a few liberties taken with the rules such as "assists" and no attempt to explain the offside rule at all - tch! But they do get the main thing right - it's all about scoring goals and beating the opposition.

This is a very upbeat game, with a light coloured playfield and lots of bright spot colours. It's also brightly illuminated, making it instantly appealing.

Perhaps the main target is the goal. Scoring would be easy, were it not for the goalie. He moves back and forth across the goal and generally does what a goalie should. Fortunately there's a free kick saucer right in front of the net, which virtually guarantees you a goal. The goal is lit by four rollover targets, something not previously seen in pins for many years.

But then this is a John Popaduik game, and if there's one thing he likes better than rollovers it's magnets. So there are two of them here - one as a ball lock mechanism, and one as a Magna-Save. Magna-Save is an electromagnet placed to stop a ball draining when activated by the player. So there's a separate flipper button just for this. In World Cup Soccer, the Magna-Save magnet is above the left flipper to stop centre drains. I have to admit to hardly ever using it as I forget it's there.

When the goal is lit, not only does the goalie spring into action, but there's a large rubber football (well, half a football actually) just below which spins into life.

This football deflects the ball and usually puts a nasty spin on it, making control quite difficult.

World Cup Soccer isn't a mode based game like RoadShow, but does have some modes in it. Mostly these are the TV awards which are lit by scoring enough goals. They are timed rounds where you can boost your score or collect an extra ball.

TV awards are one path through the game, but the main ones are either to travel across the USA to the final or to play multiball to defeat the existing World Cup holders - Germany in this case.

Travelling is achieved by collecting tickets from the top lanes and making the left loop. Get to Boston to start the Tea Party mode, and Washington to light extra ball. Get to Los Angeles to start the Final. Then you have to score more goals that Germany do to take the title.

Multiball requires you to beat all the teams ranked above you by scoring goals and then shooting ramps to light the next team, until you reach your victory laps.

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World Cup Soccer pinball. Red & Ted's Roadshow pinball. The Getaway - High Speed 2 pinball. Judge Dredd pinball. The Addams Family pinball. A quick look at my games. The little cupboard under the stairs. Hi ho, hi ho, etc. Buy buy buy, err... I mean't sell....sorry. This way to the laughs. Everything about pinball