The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship

The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship[lower-alpha 1] is a 1996 soccer arcade video game developed and published by SNK. Despite the international name, it is the fourth installment in the Super Sidekicks series, preceding Super Sidekicks 3: The Next Glory (1995). Featuring an arcade-style approach to soccer much like its predecessors, the game allows players to choose any available game mode to compete with AI-controlled rivals or human players with their preferred team. Although first launched for Neo Geo MVS, the game was ported to Neo Geo AES, in addition of being re-released on download services for various consoles. The title received positive reception from critics but proved to be less popular than its previous iterations. It was followed by Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory (1998), which is a remake of Super Sidekicks 3 and served as the final entry in the Super Sidekicks saga.[1][2]

The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship
Neo Geo AES cover art
Developer(s)SNK
Publisher(s)SNK
D4 Enterprise
(Virtual Console)
HAMSTER Corporation (PS4/Switch/Xbox One)
Producer(s)Takashi Nishiyama
Designer(s)I.Etsuko
Y.Romario
Composer(s)Yasuo Yamate
SeriesSuper Sidekicks
Platform(s)Arcade, Neo Geo AES, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Virtual Console, Xbox One
Release
  • WW: 16 October 1996
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)
Arcade systemNeo Geo MVS

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Italy and Portugal.
See also: Super Sidekicks 3: The Next Glory § Gameplay

Similar to its predecessor, The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship is a soccer game that is played from a top-down perspective in a two-dimensional environment with sprites. Though it follows the same gameplay as with other soccer titles at the time and most of the sport's rules are present, the game opts for a more arcade-styled approach of the sport instead of being full simulation.[3][4]

The players scoring the goals are still named, but individual scores are no longer kept. The regional tournaments have been eliminated and replaced with alternate mode the SNK Football Championship, which is the game's namesake, an elimination tournament in which the player can select any one opponent from any region to play. The last region played is the deciding match.

Good player performance opens up a match again a hidden boss team called the SNK Superstars, which features characters from SNK's fighting games as players. Teams now have a charge bar (similar to the one in fighting games), which is charged depending on how long the player keeps the ball under their team's control. When the bar is fully charged and flashing, if a player is near the goal, they can take a shot that is virtually unblockable, depending on the opposing team. Teams are ranked to mirror their real-life counterparts.

Team

There are 80 teams available to choose from before the start of any game modes, each one divided into 8 geographical "regions" and representing their country:[3][4]

Europe (group A)
*  Italy
*  Spain
*  Portugal
*  Wales
*  France
*  England
*  Ireland
*  Scotland
* Northern Ireland
*  Iceland		Europe (group B)
*  Germany
*  Sweden
*  Belgium
*  Denmark
*  Austria
*  Netherlands
*   Switzerland
*  Norway
*  Finland
*  Croatia		Europe (group C)
*  Bulgaria
*  Russia
*  Turkey
*  Czech Republic
*  Romania
*  Greece
*  Hungary
*  Poland
*  Slovakia
*  Israel		Africa
*  Nigeria
*  Cameroon
*  Zambia
*  Ivory Coast
*  South Africa
*  Egypt
*  Morocco
*  Zimbabwe
*  Tunisia
*  Algeria
Americas/Caribbean Sea
*  United States
*  Canada
*  El Salvador
*  Panama
*  Guatemala
*  Mexico
*  Puerto Rico
*  Costa Rica
*  Jamaica
*  Honduras		South America
*  Brazil
*  Colombia
*  Bolivia
*  Paraguay
*  Chile
*  Argentina
*  Uruguay
*  Ecuador
*  Peru
*  Venezuela		Asia/Oceania A
*  Saudi Arabia
*  India
*  Iraq
*  United Arab Emirates
*  Iran
*  Qatar
*  Oman
*  Bahrain
*  Kuwait
*  Uzbekistan		Asia/Oceania B
*  Australia
*  China PR
*  Taiwan
*  Thailand
*  New Zealand
*  South Korea
*  Japan
*  Malaysia
*  Hong Kong
*  Singapore

Development and release

The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship was headed by Takashi Nishiyama.[5] I.Etsuko and Y.Romario served as co-designers.[5] Shinsekai Gakkyoku Zatsugidan members Yasuo "Tate-Norio" Yamate and MIKI handled both music and sound effects.[5][6] The Ultimate 11 was first released by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS on October 16, 1996 and for Neo Geo AES on December 1996.[7][8] The game was one of the few Neo Geo releases to feature a corporate sponsor: Akai.[5] Both the Japanese and European AES releases have since become one of the more expensive titles on the platform, with copies of the port fetching over US$6,000 and $45,000 on the secondary video game collecting market respectively.[9] After its launch, the title was showcased to attendees at the 1996 AM Show.[10] On March 12, 2013, D4 Enterprise re-released it on the Wii's Virtual Console.[11] Hamster Corporation also re-released it for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 2019 under their Arcade Archives series.[12]

Reception

The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship received positive reception from critics but proved to be less popular than its predecessors.[4][7][15] A reviewer of Brazilian magazine Super Game Power praised the fun factor, controls, graphics and sound.[14] AllGame's Kyle Knight commended the improved visual presentation and fine-tuned gameplay but criticized the sound design and difficulty level of AI-controlled opponents.[13]

Notes
  1. Also known as Tokuten Ou: Honoo no Libero (Japanese: 得点王: 炎のリベロ, Hepburn: Tokuten Ō: Honō no Libero, lit. "Goal-Scoring King: The Flaming Sweeper") in Japan.

References
  1. Setsu (October 2003). "Dossier - SNK Neo Geo: 1998". HardCore Gamers (in French). No. 14. FJM Publications. p. 12.
  2. "Arcadias: Super Sidekicks". Club Nintendo (in Spanish). No. 199. Editorial Televisa. June 2008. pp. 66–67.
  3. The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship user's manual (Neo Geo AES, EU)
  4. Hermellin, François (December 1996). "Joypolis - Les Secrets De L'Arcade: The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship". Joypad (in French). No. 59. Yellow Media. p. 120. Archived from the original on 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2020-11-11.
  5. SNK (1996). The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship (Neo Geo MVS). SNK. Level/area: Staff roll.
  6. Fuentes, Edgar S. (August 31, 2016). "Vandal Game Music: SNK Sound Team — Realizamos un recorrido por el equipo interno de compositores de SNK desde sus inicios". Vandal (in Spanish). El Español. Archived from the original on 2020-11-06. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  7. "Dossier: Neo Geo Y SNK — Deportivos". GamesTech (in Spanish). No. 11. Ares Informática. July 2003. p. 60.
  8. "Title Catalogue - NEOGEO MUSEUM". SNK Playmore. 2010. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  9. Reichert, Nick (April 27, 2020). "The Rarest & Most Valuable Neo-Geo Games". Racketboy. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  10. Delpierre, Christophe; Daniel, François; Castel, Rodney (November 1996). "L'arcade dépasse les bornes! - JAMMA le show continue: SNK". Player One (in French). No. 69. Média Système Édition. pp. 44–45.
  11. "得点王 炎のリベロ - ゲーム情報GAME". SNK Playmore (in Japanese). D4 Enterprise. 12 March 2013. Archived from the original on 2017-07-31. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  12. Moyse, Chris (March 3, 2019). "Win the cup of the world with The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship - TWAT! That was liquid football!". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  13. Knight, Kyle (1998). "The Ultimate 11 (Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System) – Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 2014-11-15. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  14. "Esporte Total - Neo Geo: The Ultimate 11". Super Game Power (in Portuguese). No. 33. Nova Cultural. December 1996. p. 52.
  15. Setsu (October 2003). "Dossier - SNK Neo Geo: 1996". HardCore Gamers (in French). No. 14. FJM Publications. p. 11.
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