SNK was like no one else during their peak, since everything they did was on a completely different level than the rest of the industry. Their games took things further than ever before. and sports games by SNK often took sports that didn’t seem like they would make for great action games and somehow they made it work. This could be seen with Neo Turf Masters which is regarded as an all time classic. So when they took a crack at Soccer/Football, a game known for its passionate fans, the result was something that was unlike anything before it.
Soccer Brawl feels like an early predecessor to later games like Sega’s Soccer Slam and Super Mario Strikers/Mario Smash Football. It comes off as less of a sports game, and more of an action game with a sports theme. The game is a futuristic version of soccer that is played with bionic people or cyborgs as the players and the rules you are familiar with, no longer apply. This is is a one or two-player game where your team is representing one of eight countries, which include. Germany, Japan, Brazil, The United States, Italy, Spain, England and South Korea, each with their own unique abilities and skills. The game involves 5-on-5 matches, that resemble less of a soccer match than a brawler set in a soccer game.
While feel that Midway’s arcade sports games are the games that defined what an arcade style sports game should be, the reality is that SNK did just as much if not more for this genre. SNK threw out all sense of realism and instead made it about fun and action. This is a game that sadly hasn’t received the attention it deserves and I cannot understand why. Every modern sports game that uses arcade style action to differentiate itself owes something to this game. This is one to check out, and as it has just been released via Arcade Archives on modern systems, now is a good time. I would love to see SNK revisit this at some point in the future, because it is too good to just be left behind.