Nintendo World Cup Soccer - On This Day

31 years ago, the world was preparing for the World Cup. On the occasion of the "World Cup" in Italy, the NES console won the Nintendo World Cup Soccer game, although the game itself had nothing to do with Nintendo nor was it an official World Cup game. Namely, NWC was based on Technōs Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club: Soccer, which was slightly modified on the occasion of the World Cup.

If you’ve ever played football with Kunio Kun, you know his rules weren’t very close to real soccer. It was played with eight soccer players, fouls were not present, as well as the hinterland, the soccer players had supernatural moves, and they played on different pitches: on ice, ie a skating rink, in quicksand, etc. Players could stumble on rocks in the middle of the field or be struck by lightning during the game.

In Tournament mode, you could play with 13 countries, including the superpowers: Brazil, Italy, England, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, and others.

Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club: Soccer has appeared on a variety of platforms, including Mega Drive and Game Boy; but the Nintendo World Cup in that arrangement was and remains exclusive to the NES console. The closest to this football today is Goal 3, which eventually appeared in versions for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.