World Championship Soccer - Sega Master System

This game can be played also in a versions for Ge­ne­sis and DOS. Ot­hers are coming soon.

Game size:

   World Championship Soccer, known in Europe as World Cup Italia '90, was one of the first games released for the Sega Genesis system in North America in September 1989. It is a soccer game based on the 1990 FIFA World Cup tournament in Italy, featuring 24 different playable countries.

World Cup Italia 90 (SMS)

It's the first World Cup official licensed franchise game based on FIFA World Cup featuring official logo and the mascot. The game was released in 1989.
   It was ported by Elite Systems for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The game was later renamed to Sega Soccer on the Mega 6 compilation cartridge on the Mega Drive removing the Virgin Mastertronic credits
   The game presents a top-down view of a simple version of soccer (there are no fouls, substitutions, or strategies). Players must dribble and pass the ball towards one end of the field and try to score a goal by forcing the ball into the opposing team's net. When the player's team has the ball, he or she can either dribble the ball across the field, kick the ball towards the goal, pass the ball in the air to another team member, or kick the ball forward in the direction that the player is currently facing. When the opposing team has the ball, the player can switch between different team members on the field, or slide kick their opponent to dislodge the ball from their control.
   When the ball goes out of bounds, the game will switch to a full-screen graphical view for a corner kick or a goal kick. If the game ends in a tie and is not an elimination round match during the championship mode, the game will switch to a graphical penalty kick view.
   To start a game, the player must first select which country they would like to be. Teams are rated on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 being the best) based on four different attributes (Speed, Skill, Defense, and Keeper). The best team in the game is Brazil, while the worst two teams are China and Japan. Games run for 90 minutes, where each minute in the game is actually 6 seconds. There are three audio tracks during game play, chosen based on the teams in the match.

More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org.

Find digital download of this game on GOG or Steam.

This ver­sion of World Championship Soccer was de­sig­ned for the Se­ga Mas­ter Sys­tem (SMS), which was an 8-bit vi­deo ga­me con­so­le ma­nu­fac­tu­red by Se­ga in the years 1985 - 1992. It was a di­rect com­pe­ti­tor to the much more suc­ces­s­ful NES con­so­le and the pre­de­ces­sor of the much be­ter con­so­le Se­ga Ge­ne­sis. The unit pri­ce of Mas­ter Sys­tem was ap­pro­xi­ma­te­ly $ 200 and world­wi­de only 13 mil­li­on units of this con­so­le we­re sold. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about Se­ga Mas­ter Sys­tem can be found here.

You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB gamepad that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a gamepad, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some of your favorite online stores.

4 different online emulators are available for World Championship Soccer. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game World Championship Soccer are summarized in the following table: