Eat The Whistle

Eat The Whistle, brought out by Epic and Islona Entertainment, is a brand new game out to represent the 1998 World Cup, sadly a bit late. The game starts up without problems, which gives you the idea that this is a good game, then comes the intro. The intro features a very badly drawn team bus pulling up outside the stadium and the footballers jump off. Then there is a few different endings. One is where a giant football lands on the bus and another is where the stadium runs away. Its nice humour but very badly executed.

You are then given the usual options of simulation, arcade or practice. What's nice about this, though, is that the arcade mode features a bunch of comical teams, such as the Simmons, who are a copy of the Simpsons with slightly changed names.

Once into a game you notice each 'highlighted' player has a rather smart rotating arrow above his head. The animation of the sprites is pretty slick and the controls are the best I've seen in a long time. It really is nice to play because of this. One thing I don't like, though, is the fact that the goalies are mainly computer controlled and it is very hard to score against them.

On the CD version (which I have) is a full spoken commentary. The people who were selling it to me said that the commentary is so realistic, you'd think you were watching the TV. However, it is nothing like realistic. The commentary is well spoken but is very un-emotional. He even gets things wrong all the time. For example, you just kick off and he shouts "GOOD SHOT!!", hmmm...

In all this game is small. It has nothing new and has nothing at all exciting about it and it certainly isn't worth £15. This game was made half-heartedly with a hope of making money. If you have Sensible Soccer then stick to that.