Dynamite Pro Football 2010 Review

Long before FIFA and Pro Evo started tussling it out on almost every format ever imagined, there was another game claiming to be the top footy fiesta – Sensible Soccer.

With players running around the pitch like pinheads, it wasn't exactly a looker, but the franchise was always credited with having an excellent grasp on tactics and feel.

Dynamite Pro Football 2010 is almost like Sensible Soccer for people who never happened to play it. It certainly looks similar, with the view pitched up high above.

It even has the pace of Sensible Software's classic, with players darting around the pitch with scarcely enough time to catch their digitised breath.

The problem is, it's about as deep as the Wembley turf. With all the running taken care of, your main job is to use the number keys to choose just which direction you want your man to run in.

When in possession, this basically means snaking your way between opposition players into the box until you can take a shot, tapping '1' to run a touch left, '3' to dart off to the right.

Passing and shooting are both handled in much the same manner. Because making your players move requires just a tap rather than a full on hold, a second tap is enough to make them to pass or shoot - depending on their position on the pitch.

Indeed, both passing and shooting bizarrely amount to the same thing. Passes are delivered much like mid-pitch shots and aren't especially controlled, as a result. Watching the ball fly out of play from the centre circle is a regular occurrence.

As such, Dynamite Pro Football 2010 essentially amounts to a game of air hockey, where both you and the opposition ping the ball around with little thought, each one scrambling to regain possession when they dare to make a pass.

Tackling is equally haphazard, as your foe will frequently change direction at the turn of a hat. There's simply no way of telling just where he'll go and when.

It's a feature that can be equally exploited down the other end of the pitch – winning penalties is an especially simple business, with running around aimlessly in the box usually enough to trigger a bad tackle or twenty.

It's entirely coherent when compared to the rest of the package, however.

This is not a football sim of any sort – it's a mad run around that's fun to play in incredibly short bursts. As appealing as that might sound, if football is your thing Dynamite Pro Football 2010 just doesn't have the right pitch.