CONTENTS

Released in 1991 by Square, it features an incredible storyline as you join Cecil, Rosa, Kain, Rydia and other heroes in a desperate quest to prevent the evil that is terrorizing castles and towns from getting the crystals of power and to investigate the source of such a negative influence. The game's graphic aspect may not be outstanding, if compared to the more recent FF6 and FF7, but a soundtrack of epic proportions and the incredible pace and tension that accompany the events of the story make up for it. The simply designed characters are able to express an impressive variety of emotions, a result that has been cleverly achieved just by changing few pixels between one frame of animation and another and by orientating the character's body towards a certain direction. In every moment we are able to identify ourselves with the characters and understand what they are feeling: if you have already played the game, you'll surely remember the Kaipo Inn scene, where Rydia, uncertain whether to trust Cecil or not, keeps avoiding his look. Throughout the story the sense of humour is delightful and (unlike FF6) never excessive: an example of it is the Mysidian Inn, where, after being put asleep by a dancer, you wake up, find that you have been turned into pig and in front of you there's granny who laughs at you and merrily hops away. Last but not least, other two factors make the game superior to any other RPG I've seen: the 5 character-party, which makes battles really interesting (in this way, monsters can be quite strong and tough to beat) and the introduction of the 'Namingway' figure, allowing you to change party names whenever you want: if you believe in the importance of names and repent of one you have given you don't have to reset the game and start all over from a save file that's miles away.

Released in 1987 by Audiogenic, it combines everything a soccer game should have. The graphics may not be outstanding and the sound effects may be OK and nothing more, but if you give the game more than just a quick look you'll discover that, although there's only one fire button, the gameplay is absolutely stunning. When you are in possess of the ball, you can do every type of pass/shot you may imagine in a real soccer game. When the opponent has the ball, you can try stopping him by tackling him (but you may commit foul) or, with more experience, by pushing him aside. (quite an interesting option!) The control of the player comes out natural and istinctive, it really takes nothing to learn the basic steps. Of course it requires some practice before you master all the moves, but what game doesn't? The only flaw in this otherwise perfect game may be represented by the goalkeeper, who is controlled by the computer and is quite a scandal, but I can assure you that if you have a strong defence it will be real tough for anyone to score at you. Finally, this game features a nice introduction music and a lot of very, very interesting options (cup, championship, league, season, 1 player against another or 2 players vs computer, name editing, player condition and a lot of statistics referring to the tournament in which you're competing) which make it virtually endless, especially if you play against a human opponent.