Pleasure Goal

Introduction:

Hell yeah, Pleasure Goal sounds right up my alley. Who doesn't like an erotic romp through a subpar puzzle game with poorly digitized 90's women as the enticing reward? Grab your cheapest pack of smokes and head to that little dingy dive bar down the road, cuz we're...

Wait, what the hell - it's a soccer game? Well the title is a little bit misleading- and here I sit, already wearing my finest sweatpants.

The average gamer from ye olden times generally knows the Neo Geo library is saturated with fighting games. What they don't know, is that there are a hell of a lot of soccer games on the system as well. In fact, the Neo Geo library is about 6% soccer games. I bet you didn't think I could do math!

So is Pleasure Goal worth your time? Let's see how it stacks up to the competition.

Gameplay: 🕹️

It is nearly impossible to play another Neo Geo soccer game without comparing it to Super Sidekicks so I will be using that series as the baseline while I judge all aspects of Pleasure Goal.

Pleasure Goal is a fast paced arcade sports game and by no means is it meant to play like a sports sim. Each team consists of 5 players and the field is about a third of the size of a traditional field, hence the subtitle “mini soccer” on the start screen. The smaller play field leads to more frantic and intense game-play than other soccer games as someone is almost always close enough to score a goal.

On one hand, it's a little more wild constantly fighting to defend or score but at the same time scoring a goal isn't nearly as gratifying as it is in Super Sidekicks. The slow and calculated battle to control the mid-field makes the payoff of scoring feel so much better.

Pleasure Goal utilizes all 4 buttons:

• A Shoot/Steal
• B Pass/Intercept
• C Trick Play/Change Player
• D Save

The “A” button and “B” are actually labeled backwards on the “how to play” screen, so we're off to a good start here. The Pass, Shoot and Steal buttons should be familiar to anyone who's played a soccer game.

The trick play button is used in special shots, such as a flip kick, but I would stay away from that button if I were you. If you miss, your player takes too long to recover and you won't be able to snag the ball and shoot again. I'm sure with a little practice a skilled player will completely avoid this game and just keep playing Super Sidekicks.

The “D” button is reserved for the manual goalie option and I'm not entirely sure what the benefit of that mode is. I tried the manual goalie once and all the “D” button seemed to do was make the goalie pick up the ball when it was within reach.

You have the choice from 16 international teams with differing stats, which is to be expected from a sports game. Some of the teams are clearly better so I recommend picking Brazil or Argentina. You only have the choice between playing the Saurus cup and VS mode but I can't really complain. Depending on your ability, the Saurus cup will last an hour or two which is nice compared to a few of the other sports titles on the Neo Geo, which can take up to half a day.

The game-play is sharp and snappy but it feels like you're mashing buttons trying to steal the ball half of the game. Pleasure Goal plays well but it is nowhere near as graceful as Super Sidekicks.

Graphics: 👾

Oh boy, this is a mixed bag in Pleasure Goal. I'm not sure why, but Saurus tried to combined both standard sprites and pre-rendered sprites into one game, which I thought had been outlawed in most civilized countries. I'm not just talking about the character sprites and backgrounds either.

The 90's were a crazy time period where everyone was trying to figure out how to squeeze every ounce of graphical power from aging hardware. Developers often resorted to the unholy trinity of lame graphics: grainy FMV, pre-rendered sprites, and digitized EVERYTHING. Sometimes these techniques still look good in a few games such as Prehistoric Isle 2 or Pulstar, and other times we get Ragnagard.

Now get ready for some of the worst looking CGI characters ever to grace the arcades. Pleasure Goal's attract demo is a choppy mess of a movie that I guarantee actually kept people from playing the game. Imagine the Final Fantasy 7 characters with a quarter of the polygons running at 10 frames per second.

However, this is in stark contrast to the supremely BADASS vs screen we are treated to after selecting our team. There is so much fire surrounding the portraits of these angry soccer players that Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 is jealous. The versus screen actually looks great and makes me wish they would have stuck with this fighting game aesthetic for other aspects of the game. Pleasure Goal could have differentiated itself from other soccer titles if it featured some explosive fireball moves and wild specials. It may sound weird at first, but a game like Windjammers oozes with style and successfully focuses on the player vs player themes.

The two previous examples highlight the problem with Pleasure Goal's graphics. There is plenty of evidence that they had great artists working on Pleasure Goal and Saurus has several other titles using pre-rendered graphics that actually look pretty good as well. This game doesn't really stick with one or the other art style so it never creates it's own unique vibe. It probably isn't as bad as I am making it sound, but everything feels a little bit last minute and sloppily cobbled together.

Upon starting a game you will immediately notice the grotesque monstrosity of a referee, with his freakishly long ape arms dangling menacingly, ready to reach out and strangle your poor ace soccer player at the beginning of the match. Which I'm fine with, because the soccer players themselves are faceless pre-rendered creeps and a little ugly compared to the artwork of the stadium and fields.

The players lack detail compared to Super Sidekicks and they are drawn at a weird, slightly overhead perspective. The graphics and animation aren't actually that atrocious but everything is just off.

Every time one team scores a goal, you are treated to a quick animation on the scoreboard – and I kid you not – the text looks like that freaking 3d wordart everybody had on Windows '95 . You probably recognize it from the navigation menu on the left side of your aunt's website. You should call her, she hasn't updated anything since 2003.

If you are committed enough to finishing the game you will be treated to some great sprite-work which is almost jarring compared to the terrible demo from the beginning. I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking a bit here, but there are a few moments of brilliance peppered throughout the game. If Saurus would have continued with the firestorm death fight vibe from the vs screen, we could have been playing the most awesome over-the-top soccer game every created, but instead we're stuck with a game that lacks an identity.

Sound: 🔊

There is music and sounds, which are neither good nor bad.

Fun Factor:

Sure, Pleasure Goal is decent fun, but the entire time I'm playing the game I just think about Super Sidekicks. The action gets a little too frantic at times and I can't help but feel like I'm just mashing buttons when several players are clumped together.

In general I love arcade sports games as they are faster paced and simplified but Pleasure Goal never really hooked me like many other titles have. It's just lacking something and doesn't have enough charm to be memorable.

The two player experience may be a different story and I could see the game being a better time if you had a few friends over. Some of the weird 3d word art and other silly things may be good for a laugh as well.

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Conclusion: 📊

Soccer games seem to be some of the most common and easy to score titles on the Neo Geo platform so I'm sure most collectors end up with at least one or two in their stack of games. Now, I know you're eager to check eBay immediately to scoop up a copy of the 9th best Neo Geo soccer game, but Pleasure Goal happens to be more expensive than most of the greatest games in the entire Neo CD and MVS library. You may be able to score all of the other soccer games and a few fighting games for the same price.

Despite being a solid effort, Pleasure Goal will always live in the shadow of Super Sidekicks and it is too expensive to be a budget purchase. It's a somewhat mediocre title and I'm sure some people will have a good time with the game but it's not for me.