To coincide with English football’s triumph over the Spaniards and the release of FIFA 12’s disappointing European add-on, Forgotten Gems is football themed this week.
To coincide with English footballs triumph over the Spaniards and the release of FIFA 12s disappointing European add-on, Forgotten Gems is football themed this week. But no one wants to play a game in which you kick a ball around, so wheres the fun in the that? We need to remember what football used to be about; mindless violence and destruction. This week we are taking a look at that controversial classic; Hooligans: Storm Over Europe. In this 2002 strategy game the player must take control of a Dutch hooligan firm with the ambition of becoming the greatest thugs in Europe. The game differs from most other real-time strategy games as the activities that the games encourages are completely illegal. There arent any of Napoleons Armies or the regal British Navy doing honorable things in battle based upon their ideologies. They are just a small group of delinquents smashing things and people. As you might expect from any RTS, there are different classes of hooligan to choose from, each with different strengths, weaknesses, abilities and tolerances to drugs and alcohol. Unlike the greats of the genre such as Age of Empires and StarCraft, you do not control well trained armies. There is a big fat thug who can take a lot of beer and a raver who can distract enemies and ruffians that can use vehicles, to name a few. You are able to fuel your wave of brutality and demolition by giving your hooligans drugs, alcohol and more violence, and in that way, they are a bit like NeoPets. The usual outrange that followed the release of the title was its biggest selling point. Everyone wants to play a game that people are trying to ban, but you couldnt help the fact that the developers seemed to be playing into the controversies. A game which featured the tagline: The Only Thing To Fear, Is Running Out Of Beer, wasnt going to go under the media radar. It could be argued that the developers perviously chose one of the most contentious issues at the time, in order to drive up sales of what isnt anywhere near the deepest of RTSs. Perhaps they chose an intense theme to grab the headlines or perhaps they are just Dutch. As it is made in the Netherlands (the land of drugs and large hydraulic engineering projects), perhaps the developers Darxabre just thought it would be cool, and it is! Sadly Darxabre are now making iPhone Apps and appear to have left the controversial games to others. Their latest release Banana Banzai couldnt be further away from the skull cracking of Hooligans. Although a sequel wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen, it seems the developer is busy doing other things. Hooligans was fun, especially if you were too young to be playing. If grown ups dont want you to do something, you are most likely going to do it. In video games there is a long tradition of controversy going back to the very early days.Its great that our medium can still gather so much attention. Who gets upset about a book release? Ive read far worst in books than Ive seen in games. You can read all of our Forgotten Gems of Gaming series here.