Sensible World of Soccer arrives on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow (19th) at 9am. It costs - as if that really matters? - 800 MS points (about 7 quid). The press release mentions online and career modes, although why they bothered with a "helpful tutorial mode" - this is Sensi for chrissakes - is beyond me. I was burnt before with Speedball II on XBLA, but surely they can't muck up SWOS? Can they? We'll find out tomorrow. But if they manage to nail down the essence of what made the 96/97 (gulp) original so great then Sensi could be the Christmas hit of 2007.
And let's face it, this time of year is great to be a gamer. Sure, nowadays most of us buy games when time or our wallets allow, but the festive season always brings back memories of childhood gaming goodness: the days when games were restricted to special occasions and hype was confined to the playground or magazines. Or, as you get older, a time when you got a few days off work to actually play the damn things. And so it was for my finest gaming Christmas - Ocarina of Time in 1998. The game, in typical Nintendo fashion, had been in short supply after release and that just made the festive ride around Hyrule Field all the sweeter. The other standout memory is Christmas 1984 and the arrival of the C64. It came with a couple of - in hindsight - really duff games, Hunchback and Daley Thompson's Decathlon. But I loved them both at the time, and not just because it meant I had escaped the threat of getting a BBC Micro instead. Oh go on then, it's only a week to go after all - what are your favourite Christmas gaming memories?
