In a distant past, probably sometime in the late nineties, my father bought an Atari Lynx and a few games with it. One of these games was World Class Soccer. At that time, my brother and I were obsessed with our Nintendo Game Boy. But a handheld where the games could be played in color—that was really something new for us.

The Beautiful Game

Back then, my knowledge of football was limited. I must have been about ten years old and of course, I was glued to the TV whenever the Dutch national team played. But other than that, I knew very little about ‘the beautiful game.’ But a ‘realistic’ football game was something I had always wanted to play, and the moment had finally arrived; World Class Soccer was here!

Of course, as a little boy, I didn’t realize how ridiculous the game actually was. The players were far too big in proportion to the field; every free kick automatically became a penalty, and the players were indistinguishable from each other. Although, to be fair, that last part might have been a bit too much to ask for at the time. Anyway, it wasn’t great. But that didn’t bother me at all in my early teenage years.

Multiplayer madness!

In fact, there was even an elementary school friend who also had the game. And even though I didn’t have much in common with that boy—he was, after all, in a higher grade—we somehow came up with the idea of organizing a multiplayer session. What seems unremarkable today was, at the time, something you almost never experienced. Someone who had the same game for a handheld console that was hardly sold—what are the odds?

This must be it!

That afternoon, while it was blustery and slightly rainy outside, we played a few matches and probably both came to the same conclusion fairly quickly. This must be the worst football game ever made. Today, I know better; there are much worse football games out there. But World Class Soccer is certainly not one of the high-flyers that managed to achieve classic status. Only in my mind, in the memories that take me back to that drizzly afternoon in the late nineties.

Want to read more about Football video games? Check out the Top 5 worst football video games of all time!